Your Prisoner
by Artemis Reiko
Summary: Fairy Tail Assassin AU! Natsu stands to inherit the main underground mafia branch of Magnolia in the future. However, someone wants him dead. When an assassin with dark blue eyes is captured while trying to infiltrate his chambers, it's up to him to decide what to do with him. However, the mysterious prisoner has a strange effect on him and nothing ever goes as planned.
1. The Target

Gray punched in the code to the padlock on the fence. It didn't open. A small red flashing light lit up the corner. He tried again. Another flash of red.

"Fucking Lyon," Gray cursed under his breath. He pulled out his phone to call him. One ring. Two rings. _Answer the fucking phone, you piece of shit._

"Gray! Back so soon?" The teasing edge of his voice was not lost on Gray and he decided to punch Lyon's face in once he got inside. He had no sleep because the town Lyon had sent him to was more like a fucking village than it was an actual town, the target had been in plain damn sight, and everyone knew everyone so staying in the motel in town would have made him the prime suspect as soon as the man was reported missing, so Lyon is an _asshole_. Gray just walked for three hours through the woods to not be seen and he hasn't had coffee or food and now he can't even get inside his own damn building because _Lyon_ changed the freaking code.

"You know exactly why I'm back so fucking soon, Lyon. That was a grunt job that even you could have done in your sleep and I couldn't even stay in town. Give me the code."

Lyon is _chuckling_ on the other end of the phone and Gray is going to strangle him. He is going to cut his body into tiny little pieces and feed him to the fishes.

"So what crawled up your ass today, bro?" Lyon can be a great sibling at times. He knows how to work with Gray, he didn't let himself cry at Ur's funeral so that the mourners would all huddle around him and leave Gray to mourn in peace, he even buys food to keep Gray's apartment livable because Gray is hardly ever home long enough to go grocery shopping. All in all, he's a stand up guy. It's moments like these, though, where Lyon sends him to the middle of goddamn _nowhere_ , deprives him of sleep, and locks him out of his own building that make Gray think for a few minutes that he might be better off tossing his body into the lake. The urge is always brief and passing, but it also always, always, comes back because Lyon _does not know when to quit._

"Give me the fucking code." His voice is low and soft and a string of very precisely pronounced syllables that signal he's done joking and exhausted and if he does not get into the building to make some coffee real freaking soon, someone is going to die.

"Okay, Okay." So maybe Lyon does know when to stop... if he gets a little reminder to help him realize it. "82-64-97."

Gray punches in the code silently. He's had Lyon tell him the code before and hung up only to realize Lyon was a lying little shit and having to call back again. The light flashes green and the gate pops open an inch or so. Good.

"Do I get a thank you?" No. Gray clicks on him. He's inside already so he doesn't need the conversation. Not right now. He'll hear Lyon knocking on his door in the morning anyway and let him in and then they'll argue and fight and get tired and Lyon will give him a new file and Gray will make food with whatever food Lyon got and they'll have a laugh over something stupid and then Gray will leave again. It's just how they work. Lyon gets half the cash anyway as his handler because Gray would rather talk to Lyon than ever interact with his father again and this is his way of maintaining the peace.

Gray is expecting to be left alone for the rest of night. That is not what happens. When he opens his door, Lyon is right there in his living room sitting on the recliner and his leg is fidgeting up and down repeatedly in a nervous gesture as he taps his fingers against the arm of the seat.

 _Breathe. Just breathe. In. Out._

His teeth are gritted together when he practically growls out, " _What_ do you _want?"_

Lyon breathes deep and takes an envelope out from his pocket, handing it over silently. They don't talk at night. It's an unspoken rule since the time that tensions were high after they lost Ultear and Lyon and Gray both ended up in the hospital when one jab went a little too far. That makes Lyon's presence here even more worrisome because they do their routines in the mornings _only_ so this has to be serious.

Gray takes the envelope slowly. There's nothing moving in it. There's not an excess amount of information. He takes out a thin sheet of paper folded in thirds. There's a note on it. The message is brief and to the point.

 _You have a new assignment. You are to report to the head office before midnight._

 _\- S.F. Chief Operative._

Gray stares at the words. As unusual as it would be, he's hoping that Lyon will burst into fit of giggles and tell him it's a joke, or offer him some medicine for what he's praying is a hallucination but neither of those things happen. Gray hasn't seen his father in five years, not since he graduated the program and signed Lyon on as his handler, his middle man. He hasn't seen Silver Fullbuster since he accepted his first assignment, partly because neither of them is around town much, but mostly because they both avoid each other at all costs. For the _oh-so-great_ _Chief Operative Silver Fullbuster_ to request speaking to him directly is nothing short of a miracle. Or a curse. Either is a genuine possibility. The fact that the words are written in the man's actual handwriting instead of print startles Gray. No one can hack the Fullbuster servers. No one can get through their digital fortress. His father is scared. Shaken enough to send Gray a _handwritten note_ as if someone might be watching the emails or tracking the messages he sends out to the handlers. _Who the hell is he sending me to?_

He tears his eyes away from the flimsy sheet of paper to glance down at Lyon. Lyon is watching him, expressionless, but that's his default when he's too worried to assess the situation objectively. Silver must have gone to see Lyon directly. That's never happened before. In fact, Lyon sounded cheery over the phone a few minutes earlier so Silver must have left the building not two minutes before Gray made it to his floor. Gray hates Silver all the more for getting past him so effortlessly, making a mockery of his training so easily.

Lyon nods at him. There are no words exchanged in person this late. Not even under these circumstances, but Lyon still reads his eyes almost as easily as Ur used to and Gray knows he should leave. He nods at him in response and goes. Out the door, down the stairs, through the fence, and into the car lot down the street. He zeroes in on an old beat up Corolla that has chipped paint, but seems to be in working condition. He picks that car. He's just borrowing it, and no one will report it missing if it's back by the early hours of the morning.

It's about thirty minutes before he gets to the head office building. He'd known where it was since he was sixteen. He's still never set foot inside.

He gets into the elevator and presses the button for the penthouse floor. His father doesn't even live there. He just directs his handlers from that place. He doesn't know where his father lives. He's stopped asking. If the man dies in his sleep, Gray might just throw a party in celebration.

Floor 13, Floor 29, Floor 37, Floor 54, Floor 66, Floor 72, Penthouse.

Anyone else meeting the Chief Operative in his own territory would dress up in a suit and tie, maybe even bring a briefcase. Gray is dressed in dark green cargo pants, muddy black combat boots, a black T-shirt with several tears in it from a struggle earlier in the day that he left there purposely to offend his father, and his necklace dangling out over his shirt instead of under it. He sometimes keeps it under to make sure he doesn't lose it, but today it's jutting forward a little over his chest with every step he takes and it's a big _fuck you_ to his father because the minute the man sees it, he stills.

It's a movement that lasts only a fragment of a second and anyone who didn't understand him as well as Gray wouldn't notice it, but Gray does and he bites the inside of his cheek to keep from smirking. _She was a better parent than you ever were and it's your fault she's gone. Her and her daughter. It's all your fault. Remember that it's all your fault._

"Gray," the man grounds out.

"Silver," Gray responds, voice flat. Gray never calls him father. Silver never calls him son.

There's a beat of soundlessness. Another. The only sound heard on the floor is the sound of an airplane departing from the airport in the distance. Neither breaks the silence. Silver hands a file to Gray over the surface of the wooden desk with a fancy marble top set in it. The file has a black tab and Gray hesitates before reaching out for it. Black. Confidential. Dangerous. A job that no operative has returned from. Files are only labelled black when over five operatives in the second tier of command fail. Five lives. Five people with the same training and rank as Gray, taken out. The policy is to assign these files to the first tier, to a man like Silver, the Chief Operative of their division, once the sixth operative fails. Silver is assigning a black tab file to _Gray._ This could be the first sign of faith Silver has ever shown in him. It could also be the job that Silver intends to get him killed with.

Gray takes the file. Operatives do not open files near other operatives. The files are the concentration of every detail that scouts and previous operatives have sent in about the target's life. They are the single most important source of information an operative can get, containing the reward amount, the background information, the online trail, the habits, the obstacles, the routines. It's their livelihood written across a few pages stuck in a manilla folder with a nice colorful tab that they are trained to keep from prying eyes. Sure, they're _assigned_ their cases individually and no operative is going to touch another's assignment with a ten foot pole because that could start a small war, but none of them are open with their information because secrecy has been drilled into them in the program. The memory of feeling electricity running through every cell in their body dissuading them from sharing details with anyone other than their handler.

He's walking away, taking a step into the elevator again with as much composure as he can muster when Silver calls out, "Gray."

He pauses in between the doors to keep them open and doesn't turn around. "Yes?"

A beat of silence. Two.

"Don't disappoint me."

Gray steps into the elevator and the doors close behind him.

Funny. He almost thought his father might say "be careful." He almost believed that, somewhere underneath the deadbeat _full-of-shit_ exterior, his father cared a tiny amount. _So much for good parenting._

Gray is alone in the elevator. He glances around inconspicuously for any sign of cameras. There are none. He's not going to read the file entirely on the ride down. He'll do that in his apartment where he knows no one will interrupt his planning right before packing his shit and heading out to wherever he needs to be to reach whoever he needs to take out. He'll just open it to glance at the name of his target. It _is_ a _black file_ after all. No one could blame him for being curious. He opens the file and looks at the blurry picture of pastel pink locks and tan skin. His target. The man five highly trained operatives failed to bury six feet under.

The name is just to the right of the amateur photograph in big bold letters.

 _Natsu Dragneel._


	2. Just One

Natsu was getting real fucking tired of Snowden sending operatives into his territory. Into Hellfire territory.

They thought they were so freaking untouchable, the cocky 'Snowmen' as Laxus took to calling them. They thought they could just swoop in, bypass their security, use one bullet, and get a paycheck. Or cash. There had been no paper trail to these so-called 'operatives.' Any information his… co-workers… got was delivered to them by Acnologia. Almost all the information these days came from that monster, or from members scrambling to impress him so that they could see another day on the inside.

No one had to worry about being put out on the streets before. It was just another weekly thing since Acnologia came waltzing through their ranks.

Zeref pulled the strings of the organization, but it was Acnologia that kept everyone in line. For the thousandth time, Natsu found himself missing Igneel. Igneel would _never_ have let them deface the business in such _disgusting_ ways. When Igneel was the face of their business, every member was family. They protected each other to the death and ruined anyone who hurt their own. It was protective. It was comforting. It was home sweet home with a whole lot of fighting and a touch of gunfire every now and then. That was five years ago.

Under Acnologia, anyone who didn't meet his 'standards' was kicked to the curb. The organization got rich faster, lost all its previous values, and presented the fastest source of income for anyone just desperate enough to resign themselves to it.

What was the saying? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Every week they had a small influx of members, anywhere from five to ten new members who were desperate to increase their skill, to provide for their families, to make some kind of money since the mafia took everything they had left and then some. This was their last resort. One last shot to the money, even though it might earn them a shot to the head if they weren't good enough. Amateurs would fuck up once and Acnologia would kick them right back out to the streets they came from with not a dollar to their name and two tattoos, one for initiation, one for failures. Those marks made them targets for the hatred of the entire county and laid them out for the feeding frenzy. That made them as good as dead. So many ex-members had been slaughtered at this point that the cops couldn't keep up with the sheer mass of investigations on top of the violence that the real members dealt on a daily basis under that crazy fuck. One dead man or woman of the 'family' every week. And a shower of murders to send them out with a bang.

It made Natsu's fists clench with repressed fury. There was nothing he could do and that was so damn _frustrating_. Natsu knew he was labelled as thoughtless and impulsive, probably because usually he _was,_ but he did know a losing battle when he saw one. He was no match for Acnologia. The man was raw power, welded stealth, and fearlessness wrapped up in one terrifying package that sunk its claws in and never let go.

The worst part was that Acnologia wasn't even part of the bloodline. He should have been nowhere near the chain of command, but Igneel left and Zeref, being the oldest, took his seat at the throne right after Mavis died. He was vulnerable and broken and in the wrong frame of mind, botching up trades and shooting down members who failed him quickly and efficiently without any visible emotion. He had one goal. Find the person responsible for Mavis' death. Mavis had been his childhood sweetheart, a prodigy skipping from the second grade to the fourth in the ghetto and following Zeref around because she thought he looked far too lonely sitting in the back of classrooms and avoiding people. Zeref was the first of Igneel's children, and as such, he was a born into the life.

He still went to school, but was under strict orders to _learn from them, but don't associate with them. Every attachment you have is something an enemy can use against you. You'll have enough of those within the family as it is._ Mavis made Zeref feel hopeful in a way no one in the family had ever managed. She made him see the good he could do even if he was born on the wrong side of the tracks. She helped him develop plans to increase the territory of Hellfire, to hold a tactical advantage over rival gangs, to overpower newcomers with carefully laid traps, and how to train their members to be better, stronger, faster. Igneel had been furious that Zeref so carelessly revealed their infrastructure to an _outsider,_ but even he welcomed Mavis to the family when her analytical abilities proved to be astounding and effortless, like a rubix cube was shifting and turning and clicking into place in her mind faster than anyone but Zeref could follow. Zeref's brain was a thing of brilliance, the kind of mind that remembers every interaction and files it away for future reference, that no one but Mavis could unravel, could even begin to comprehend.

Then she was sent out on an errand. Reconnaissance. Simple. Take a camera, get a decent view, stay out of sight, bring back pictures of the faces of an up-and-coming gang on the south side of the county. She'd done similar jobs before. She'd never failed because she was a tactical genius.

This one time was different. She never came back. Zeref was unapproachable and anxious. Then the photographs came. A picture of a severed hand, wearing a thin silver band with a diamond set as the centerpiece on the ring finger. A promise ring. A very familiar one that had Zeref shaking before he was running out of the room, collapsing in a fit of wracking sobs at Natsu's door. A picture of a pale blonde lock of hair on the ground, sitting on the edge of a puddle of dark burgundy liquid. Blood. A picture of a heart, two lungs, two kidneys, a liver, and coppery-red fluid that the others could only assume was bone marrow, all in separate clear containers with a note scribbled across the side of one. Three words: _she was alive._ It was graphic. It was sadistic. It drove Zeref to the brink of insanity and, when Igneel vanished into thin air, he lost himself in the dark corner of his mind with a single-minded focus that terrified those around him. One goal: avenge Mavis.

He failed.

The first person who gave him a solid lead ended up ruling the rest of the gang, stringing Natsu's brother around like a puppet. They had needed to get information from a rival weapons dealer moving in on the outskirts of town when Zeref hired Acnologia, a ghost mercenary with a reputation of _always_ getting the answers out of his subjects. How Zeref found Acnologia at all was a mystery to all parties involved, but it was Acnologia who found the organ trafficking assholes who popped into cities and disappeared without a trace, covering their tracks so efficiently that even Zeref yanked at inky black locks in desperation. It was Acnologia that found the tactical weak point in their headquarters. It was Acnologia who led Zeref in and let him take the kill, introduced him to 'the finer aspects of torture' as he liked to call them. It was he that gave Zeref his sanity back.

But it came at a cost that no one else would have ever agreed to pay. The new head of the organization saw Acnologia like a God, his second guardian angel. A cheap replacement for what Mavis had been in the eyes of every member who'd known her, but Zeref was blind and deaf when it came to Acnologia's vast list of imperfections. Zeref couldn't see him for the demon that Natsu knew he was. Word spread that the legend was finally taking up residence in one place, taking an allegiance with Magnolia's finest criminals.

It wasn't that bad at first. They got information ten times faster than before and no one dared stand against them. Then Acnologia got Zeref into bed on a high after a big victory and Zeref, who already had trouble with the concept of morality, stopped going to Natsu for advice and started going to Acnologia instead. The gang went from prosperous and united to a ruthless pack of sharks under the creed of ' _eat or be eaten'_ practically overnight.

And then the murders began. Families hellbent on revenge, cops dead set on arrests, assassins crawling out of the woodwork. Everyone thirsty for the blood of a ' _Dragon,'_ as their members had been labelled. Strong, destructive, and untameable.

It wasn't very long before people realized that Acnologia was at the head of the mafia business now. He was the head of the magnolia weapons deals, drug stream, most recently the human trafficking rings. If you ruled the Magnolia underground, you ruled the country of Fiore and since Fiore was the trading capital of the world, you practically owned the underground on an international scale. No one managed to kill him, though it wasn't for _lack of_ _trying_. He was just so good that people could train their entire lives and still fall to their knees within the first minute of confronting him. It wasn't long before they realized the man was labelled a ghost _for a reason_ and could disappear at the drop of a hat and they turned their sights on the next best target. Zeref. That was a dead end, because as much as Acnologia loved holding the reins, he knew that Natsu stood to hold the command the second Zeref bit the dust and no one would follow him over a bloodline inheritor. Natsu hated him with every fiber of his being and no member would follow Acnologia if he killed their head, so while Zeref could be a little lax about his own life being in danger, Acnologia defended him tooth and nail. For that small mercy, Natsu was grateful. Their enemies, however, assumed that their best chance of saving the future of Magnolia, was to kill the inheritor. Which led to his current predicament. Thirteen.

Thirteen hitmen had been sent after Natsu. While most were individual hires, or desperate lowlifes that the guards knocked out easily and dumped in a ditch somewhere so they could wake up disoriented and far away, five were good enough to get right up to the walls of the complex without detection before the others finally found and outnumbered them, which took over seven of their outer circle members, at the least, every single time. Their members got their hands on the would-be-killers, and in a desperate attempt to climb up the ranks, handed them on a silver platter to the blades of Acnologia. These people were highly trained, highly skilled, and all had a very high pain tolerance. Acnologia had a previous record of breaking anyone and everyone in under twelve hours. None of the five broke in under 48. The last one lasted 72 before the hallucinations started and he rambled on about his origin. So they had a name, and a general direction in which to look, and five new murderous members who all broke under Acnologia and followed his every command because whatever he had done to them had broken their minds so badly that he was their only reality, the face their minds latched onto in a desperate attempt to remain in tact. Natsu was still trying to talk to some of them, to no avail. They were silent with anyone else. It was infuriating.

The worst part about it was that Natsu knew that Snowden would be sending more. Another stupid fucking 'snowman' who was going to break in and get himself or herself broken for their efforts because Acnologia was a sick inhuman being.

One. Just one. That was all Natsu wanted. Just one of them to actually make it past the security detail and the traps and get to him so that they could fight, and he could talk them down and send them away, far away, where Acnologia couldn't lay his disgusting blood-stained hands on them. He just wanted to feel like he could save one fucking person. Even if that person was sent in to kill him. Natsu had been forced to take a life before. He couldn't judge. He didn't want another poor fucker to get themselves into deeper shit than they could handle.

The enemies kept trying to box him in by sending in Chihuahuas when they needed to send in the wolves. They kept trying to get him executed without realizing that, as inheritor, he was their last fucking chance at peace. If by some miracle Acnologia was dead and gone, Natsu and Zeref could restore their empire to what it used to be. He was their last shot.

Instead, people just wanted to kill all three heads and watch as the dogs tore each other the fuck up to rise in station. The gang would disband, the individual branches would try to take over, and a full scale war would plague the city. _We traffick large-scale military-grade weaponry you dicks, what are you expecting to happen when you turn us against each other?_ But none of them thought about it in the long term because they were idiots who couldn't see the big picture.

Natsu stared at the man in his doorway. Huge. Blonde. Muscular. Big lightning shaped scar over one eye. Laxus.

Natsu and Laxus did not get along very well. Mostly because while Laxus got a small thrill on the way Acnologia ran things, Natsu was still holding onto a hopeful glimmer of the past where Igneel was around and Natsu was still happy and there weren't lifeless operatives joining their ranks as a sign of submission to the bastard who corrupted his brother.

Be that as it may, Laxus was still loyal to the family over the whore seated on the throne. Therefore, Laxus was the one who updated Natsu on the latest details of their gang. Threats. Shipments. Deaths. New members. How many more broken initiates were being _welcomed to the family_.

Laxus is Natsu's most reliable source of information, even if he hates Natsu's guts and Natsu hates his. Laxus is probably only decent to him because he protected Freed from getting knocked out of the ranks when this whole reconstruction shit started. Acnologia didn't like the look of him and called for a trafficker to sell the goods. Natsu rebuilt the cyber division from scratch so Freed could hack into servers and "follow the money" of their enemies, like Mavis used to and even Acnologia couldn't convince Zeref not to allow it, not with her gone and the memories of nightmarish photographs still flashing before him whenever he closed his eyes.

Laxus never said a word of thanks, but whenever Natsu needed an escape, Laxus covered for him. No questions asked. One time, during their initiation test, Natsu saw Laxus' hands linger a little too long over Freed's when they passed a gun in between them and he's kept quiet ever since. Back then, it was because their relationship was new and fragile and they all knew: _Don't show your enemies the things they can use against you._ Now Natsu kept quiet because the person he saw as the biggest threat to his family was on the inside. No need to give Acnologia weaknesses in the structure that he can exploit when he's already tearing the business at the seams.

"Three newbies today. There's a skinny little blonde who's gonna get skinned alive next week if no one teaches her to keep her fucking head down. Thought you'd want to know."

Natsu nodded, clenched jaw and gritted teeth.

Laxus nodded in return and walked away. He didn't once turn in the direction of the camera at the edge of the hall. Best not to give anything away in a facial expression, or risk finding out that Acnologia was all-knowing and just so happened to read lips too. Newbies weren't supposed to get help. Not anymore. They either made it on their own or they didn't. It wasn't up to either of them.

Not everyone lived in the complex, but the members with the highest success rate for negotiations, enforcement, reconnaissance, and covering their tracks all lived there. It was how Igneel made sure his own were always protected. Now, it was how Acnologia kept watch over them. Their paradise became their prison.

Natsu closed the door behind him and walked over to his desktop, plopping himself down in the plain chair in front of it. It wasn't the virtual demon of fifteen screens like the one Freed kept in his office, but Natsu did at least have a decent system setup, access to the Federal Facial Recognition Software Program, and to no less than three international databases. So Mavis had designed the encryption software for him so that the signal would appear dormant on any server and ping back and forth in between thirty-six signal towers around the world if ever discovered. Natsu still had to learn to actually _use it_ and that was a challenge in and of itself.

He was just about to type a question for Zeref in their shared google document, that he could delete as soon as he had a response because the web saved documents as you left them and that way their conversations would never be found and used in court despite the number of fancy warrants the authorities tried to saddle on them, when he heard a deep baritone voice far too close to his ear.

"Found you."

Natsu smiled at the reflection of the man he saw in his dark computer screen. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark clothes. A drop dead _sexy_ smirk that promised the end for those who saw it.

 _One. Just one. That was all Natsu wanted. Just one of them to actually make it past the security detail and the traps and get to him so that they could fight, and he could talk them down and send them away, far away, where Acnologia couldn't lay his disgusting blood-stained hands on them. He just wanted to feel like he could save one fucking person. Even if that person was sent in to kill him._

 ** _Fina-fucking-lly._**


	3. On Behalf Of Wolves

He stood, leaning over the marble counter of the kitchen island, file open before him. He'd already called Lyon, given him the update even if it was in their own basic code.

 _I got a new gig. Black waters. I need to get the lay of the land. Might take me a while. I'll keep you updated and call you if the fans get too rowdy._

Translation: _New file. Black tab. Haven't scouted yet. Need more information. I'll keep up the regular check-ins and find a way to contact you if the target is too difficult to handle on my own._

Gray stared at the contents in his folder, spread out over the counter, unflinchingly. Gray had never failed a mission before. Lyon told him the things other handlers said about him in the handler meetings. They called him the ' _Ice Prince'_ because any investigation into the deaths of his targets led the cops to frozen trail after frozen trail of absolutely nothing and he left so much false evidence behind that it led to those cases generating box after box on the cold case shelves in whatever precinct they were sent to. They joked that it was like a royal had disintegrated a commoner and no one would ever question it. Hence the name, 'Ice Prince.'

One target. Just one. That was all Gray wanted. One target that was a little more of a challenge, that was a little harder to pick off and didn't make him feel like he was executing sheep on behalf of wolves. He just wanted one target to be difficult enough to be worth all the money Gray got paid for his execution. One man whose name Gray could say to his father to shut him up.

" _Don't disappoint me,"_ he'd said. As if he hadn't disappointed Gray with his pathetic militant idea of parenting. Other operatives didn't start electrocution training _when they were five, thank you very much_.

Operatives themselves rarely met other operatives after graduation. Less personal involvement, less risk. Very few of them ever worked together. The higher ups didn't want them growing personal attachments and then turning against the chain of command if their partner died on an assignment. They each had access to too much sensitive information for that.

Even a handler was a risky attachment to allow an operative to have, but the assignments needed to be kept offline. If there was someone who could build a digital fortress, there was someone who could take it down with the same amount of effort. While no one had breached the Fullbuster servers, a genius feature that had gained his father the attention of the Snowden corporation and led to the family's current place in their division, yet, it would be foolish to assume that no one ever would.

They'd had a close call with some blonde woman from Hellfire before she mysteriously disappeared, something they were grateful for, but nervous about because if she came back she could be really close to cracking their system and no one wanted a war. It grated on Gray's nerves because he'd seen Silver design that system when he was small, in between the brutal hand-to-hand combat sessions his father would deal him. He knew just how difficult it was to navigate through the backways of a labyrinth of that size, strength, and capacity. He knew because he'd been there, bruises marring his skin, to witness its creation. Rumor had it that Hellfire had a new hacker in training, picking up their technological division from the ashes. Every higher up was on edge these days and it didn't escape the notice of the handlers. Hellfire was a sore subject among them and their operatives.

They just went after targets and targets only. They weren't looking to make a personal enemy out of Hellfire; they just had a lot of clients calling for the heads of 'Dragons' ever since the infamous Acnologia made their leader his bitch. People were dropping dead like flies and relatives, cops, and bystanders in hiding were all rooting for the same end. Get their members behind bars or put a bullet through their head. The second option opened up a new flood of business in Snowden. Nothing personal. A job was a job. Cash was cash. It made the world go 'round and their world was _spinning._

The only team so far to break the rules of flying solo was the team the other handlers called ' _The Twin Dragons,'_ because of how many ' _Dragons'_ from Hellfire the two had disposed of before even reaching the second tier rank. Their handler's name was Yukino, if Gray remembered correctly, and as far as the second tier went, those two were just behind Gray in their death toll. They'd all been picked off the streets, them and a little black-haired girl named Minerva, running away from a disgusting foster home that was growing mold on rotting wood with a decrepit perverted man that only held onto the children for the monthly checks they came with. Minerva had skyrocketed to the first tier, a division under her command and influence within the first two years of her graduation, because she took only military trained targets, breaking into the file warehouse and taking her pick without a handler to assign her anything since she'd threatened to castrate him with a molotov cocktail. How she found the house was anyone's guess, but it was the gossip of the year for handlers. The Twin Dragons had kept to themselves in the program, following orders, but when they bested a foreign mercenary that was racing to claim their assignment before they could claim the target's life, the higher ups took notice and those two were promoted to the second tier, a couple of weeks after Gray.

It worried Gray now. Not because he was afraid of being beaten in numbers, his quality was flawless and this case could be the thing he needed to promote him and Lyon to tier one rank, but because, as he read the pages in the file, he noticed the aliases of the last two operatives that Snowden lost contact with.

 _The Twin Dragons._

Gray stared at those three words at the bottom of the list. Three aliases and then that.

 _Impossible._

Gray had never failed a mission. Neither had they. They had gone through the nightmarish training during the same years, started together, finished together. They didn't know Gray's real name, calling him 'Ice Cube' because of how cold he was and unsociable, _locked in a box cube_ , they'd said. He called one of them 'Shadow' because of his dark hair, and the other 'Light' because he was always joined with Shadow at the hip and his hair was so much lighter in comparison, being a blonde who hung around with a raven-haired trainee.

He looked at the contact label next to their code name.

 _Unknown._

Gray's blood ran cold. The organization had lost them. Operatives who failed missions _always_ escaped and made their way back to their handlers. Always. Or they found a way to contact their handler to network with their colleagues and request immediate assistance, extraction in the most dire situations. They were trained for every possibility. Operatives could go off the radar, but if they missed their check-in they'd find a way to get in touch within forty-eight hours before their whereabouts were reported as Unknown by the filing division. For Shadow and Light to be awol for over two days was unheard of. Inconceivable. And if the file had reached Silver's hands and he'd had to wait to contact Lyon first and then Gray rather than resort to digital means, then the file had been making its rounds with the higher ups for half a week at least now. They wouldn't run off on their own. Not without informing Yukino and getting her to leave too. Someone had overpowered them.

He looked at the photograph again, unclipping it from the page it was attached to.

Natsu Dragneel had bested two of the three operatives that Gray could trust with his life. They were most likely dead, if he was to believe the vicious stories going around about Hellfire members these days. His blood turned to ice in his veins at the thought of his comrades, dead somewhere in a ditch or in a coroner's office with no one being able to identify them because all traces of them had been wiped off the record.

Shadow had treated his wounds after every fight in the early years took too much out of him. Light had been the first person to make him laugh after the electrocution sessions had caused him to break down and lock himself in his room, wracking sobs escaping, the flashes of what the electricity had made him hallucinate, no, _remember,_ still swirling in his head. When Gray had been shot on a job, he'd stumbled into a portable bathroom and sent an emergency extraction request to Lyon, asking him for Yukino. Shadow and Light had dropped everything, all of their surveillance tasks for a new assignment taking a backstep, as they rushed over to his location, Shadow placing duct tape over the wound to stop the bleeding, stuffing him into the back seat of the car and driving to their own secondary location, Light stealing a motorcycle and ambushing a blood donation vehicle, knocking out the driver and raiding their _O negative_ supply to make sure Gray had enough blood to survive if they pulled off the duct tape to remove the bullet. They had been his _friends._

Lyon was his older brother, Ur's son from an earlier marriage before she let Silver in to destroy her and her daughter's life, even if Gray was a product of that dysfunctional union. He could count on Lyon no matter what, but he wasn't an assassin in his own right. There was a camaraderie among operatives, especially the ones who graduated in the same year, that no one else, not even a sibling, could emulate. It was the kind Gray shared only with three people. Shadow, Light, and one other operative: Leo. His three had been reduced to one because of the man in this file. This photograph.

Pink hair. Tan skin. White scarf. Bright smile that he probably wore even when he murdered people for nothing.

Gray would kill him. Gray would _eviscerate him free of charge._

He took note of what the scouters had sent in, not much information since only what scouters had sent in had been recorded, and not a word from any operative had made it back, just five boxes with the word _Unknown_ scribbled into them.

Still, it was enough for Gray to collect the pages, stuff them back in the folder, leave it inside one of the recliner pouches with zippers hidden in them for Lyon to find and know his whereabouts, and head out.

He had showered, slept, changed clothes, and packed his duffel bag with just enough clothes for a weekend. It was Monday, but operatives had no set hours, really. Weekends and weekdays all kind of blended together into one hazy thing that they hated keeping track of. Most of them just kept track of time by days. How many days are in that month? Once they reached that number, they'd just start the count over for the next one. November fifteenth. 11/15. Military time afterwards.

Gray never took longer than three days, especially if the assignment was within Magnolia.

He had taken note of the neighborhood the scouts had tracked down due to a server connection one of their digital members had left open at a murder scene for just a minute too long. They wouldn't realize that Snowden pinned down their headquarters because of it, but the five missing operatives were probably a major tip off. Trained assassins tearing their way in one after another was a dead giveaway that more were coming, even if the Hellfire Elite didn't know from where.

Gray had on a black hoodie, necklace hidden beneath, black cargo pants, black military boots. He didn't have an extreme penchant for the shade black, it was just easier to go unnoticed in a crowd if you avoided lighter colors.

He felt the weight of his knives slipped under his belt, hidden by the baggy hoodie, the outline of the empty syringe in his pocket. Back-up needles slipped into his threaded four inch wristband. Pull back the syringe about a centimeter, inject air into the bloodstream, pull the needle out, and sit back and watch as the target goes into cardiac arrest. Or use the time to get away. By the time the paramedics got there, they'd be too late.

Too many operatives made the mistake of carrying tasers. Less of them were doing so now that some idiot had kept one in his back pocket and sat on the button that left severe burns on his ass when he couldn't move his arms the way he wanted to in order to turn it off. It would be a _long_ time before _that_ guy ever got into the second tier of operatives.

Gray was not one to make that sort of mistake. Even with his training, if a target was stronger, they could gain control and then he'd be the one on the floor, twitching, memories clouding his vision that he never wanted to see again. He preferred to end it with combat, knives, or a nice air bubble to the heart as a last resort. _You freeze the heart, you freeze the body._

He made his way to the location and saw an apartment complex about nine blocks away from the location. Instead of heading straight to the target, he made his way over to the apartment building, hoodie raised to cover his face. He waited for a woman to go in with her child and fell into step with them. The view people would get would appear as if a moody teenager in a 'phase,' as people called them these days, was following his mother, especially since his face was out of the shot. He stepped into the elevator behind her.

"What floor?" she asked, trying to get a look at him through the curtain of hair he'd allowed to fall over his eyes. The child, a little blonde boy with blue eyes was hiding behind her leg, was staring at him.

He looked at the buttons her fingers were hovering over. Highest floor. 18.

"18th," he enunciated, right before letting out an echoing sneeze that fell just short of his elbow. She jumped back a step, the child gripping her leg tightly and looking away. She pressed the button. She didn't ask any more questions.

She stepped off on the ninth floor. He went up the rest of the ride alone. On the eighteenth floor, he saw a door, stairs visible behind it though the thin glass window. He reached for door knob. Locked. He got out a needle from his wristband. He navigated through the space, brow furrowed in concentration. Wait for it. A distinctive clink sounded out in the empty hallway. He turned the door knob. Open. He made sure to tug his hood even lower in case there were security cameras on the roof. There were three. If there was someone monitoring the footage, then he had about five minutes to leave before they came up to get in his way. He looked at the complex nine blocks north.

One twelve foot brick wall around the complex with a spiked fence over it. Four towers around it. Probably with snipers at the highest level. Nine floors in the towers, based off the number of small parallel windows in a column. Thin. So nine guards per tower. There were about fifteen meters of land between the fence and the complex itself. He could see the tops of the heads of about seven guards on each side of the fence, four sides. One entrance up front big enough for about three cars to enter at once, but there were five armed men talking along the driveway.

The complex had five floors, one front entrance just wide enough to let a single car in, iron gates serving as doors, a view of a small depression into an underground lot was visible from Gray's spot on the roof. He looked at a window on the third floor, the light passing through, casting a shadow behind a shoe on the floor that let Gray know just how thick the windows were. Three and a half inches. Bulletproof. He cursed quietly. Checked his phone. Two minutes left.

His eyes scanned the building, window by window. A small window on the first floor let him see a bathroom. No one was inside. He assumed any bedrooms were on the upper floors and that that room was reserved for guests. Bingo. He checked the time again. One minute. He looked along the streets for the one last thing he needed and right in front of an alleyway two blocks from the target he saw it. An entrance to the sewers. He heard the steps running up the stairs. Looked over the edge of the building. An apartment on the eighteenth floor was connected to a fire escape. Six feet down.

"Hey!" came a voice, shouting at him.

Gray jumped over the ledge, one hand sliding down the pipes the held off rainwater, let go the last three feet, and landed, knees bent, crouching down on the fire escape, breaking into a run, shouts coming from above. He had turned a corner around the building by the time the other security guard made it outside. Most apartment complexes had embarrassingly lax security.

He got back to his new stolen car in a cheap lot without cameras. He removed the hood of his sweater and finally felt like he could breath again. He got inside, pulled his duffel bag close to him. Twelve sticks of dynamite. Two blocks of C4 explosives. Duct tape. He could use his army surplus knife in lieu of scissors. A lighter. A highly flammable wire. A map of the sewers underground. The place was a fortress and there was no way to get in undetected. At least not above ground. He'd have to tear his way in from beneath. Once he had everything he needed, he shot a quick text to Lyon.

 _About to meet the fans. I'll call you soon so don't go crazy on me. I'll let you know when I'm done._

Translation: _Ready to go after the target. I'm confident so don't worry about me. I'll check in after I'm out of their territory._

He marked the position of the hotel on the map and where it was over the sewers, took into account where the entrance to the sewers was, two blocks from the complex gates. He noted where that was in the tunnels. He noted where the fence would be on the map. And the inner complex itself was fifteen meters beyond that, roughly five inches on the map. The window of the bathroom was twelve meters to the left of that. He marked down both locations, about a meter further in so that he'd get the exact center of the rooms.

He let his belt out three notches, tucking the explosives in a neat row, snug around his waist. Duct tape and wire in one of the lower pockets against his calf. Map folded and tucked into his boot. He couldn't afford to lose it. He left his phone in the duffel bag. It wouldn't do to be caught with a technological link to Snowden.

He pulled his hood back over his head. Got out. Locked the car. Headed to the sewer entrance, waiting for the guy crossing the street to turn out of sight before he ran out to the manhole, lifting the cover, slipping under, latching onto the first rung of the ladder. He made his way down.

He flicked the lighter to see where he was going, following the map to the marked points, reached the place he knew was directly under the small car lot behind those iron gates. He pulled out the duct tape and started cutting pieces, fourteen pieces about twelve inches long, laying them all on the ground, facing up. One piece of dynamite on twelve of them. One block of C4 on the last two. He place one of the C4 blocks right against the top of the tunnel, suddenly grateful it was a back tunnel running underneath and not a main one. He flatted the extra sides of the piece of tape against the concrete, relieved that it stuck to the smooth surface. If the concrete had been bumpy, it might not have worked. He repeated the process with eight sticks of dynamite, forming a circle around the C4. He got the flammable wire from his pocket, used his blade to snap it in half. He used the wire to connect to the small wires from the dynamite sticks, linking all eight around the block.

He left that while he got the other block of C4 under the spot directly beneath the empty bathroom above. Four sticks of dynamite in a ring. Flammable wire. He walked back to the first block of it, flicked his lighter, and lit the wire, running to the second ring, lighting that wire too and then running down the tunnel into a main channel and crouching in the dirty water, covering his ears. He could only imagine the chaos it would cause above. Members would run for the underground lot, checking cars, searching every corner, soon heading down the hole into the sewer and by the time they saw the second hole under the bathroom, Gray would already be inside. The fire was massive.

He smirked, waited for the vibrations to stop, some of the smoke to clear, heard the shouts above and ran to the nearest cavity, pulling himself up, swinging his legs over the edge, and taking in his surroundings.

He saw himself in the mirror briefly. _I look muddy and disgusting._ He removed the hoodie and kept on his black henley shirt and anything from the waist down. There were footsteps thundering down the halls beyond the door. He couldn't go through there. He caught sight of a heating vent above one of the toilet stalls. He sighed. He hated the heat. He used his knives to loosen the screws, tossed them down the toilet. He crawled in, replacing the vent beneath his feet behind him, and squeezing through the small channel. He crawled through, reaching a crossing point where there was a vertical passage above him. He used his forearms to pull himself up, legs locked against both sides of the space, moving up slowly. One false move and he could drop ten feet, break his legs, and die there, baked, no way to contact anyone in a target's territory. He wouldn't let that happen. He went up, slowly, but passing two horizontal passages. He was now somewhere near the fourth floor. He crawled into the third horizontal channel, turning left, stopping over one of the vents to breathe, sweat dropping from his hair.

A blonde man was visible underneath his spot, talking on the phone.

"Tell Natsu yourself," he whispered harshly into the phone. Gray was silent and fully alert instantly. The man waited for the person on the other end to finish. "Fine," he paused, "I said fine. I'll go tell him now. Go see what the hell is going on downstairs for me."

He waited a beat and hung up. He went up ahead in the hall and Gray scrambled to crawl along the passage at the same pace. He stopped at the next vent. He saw the muscular blonde man stop at a thin red door. A familiar head of pink hair and green eyes came into view as it opened. Gray waited for the conversation to end, for the blonde to disappear from his sight, for the door to close. He made sure his hair fell over his face as he kicked open the vent and slid down. He chose the door to the left of Natsu's, picking the lock and hoping it was empty. As luck would have it, it seemed to be a storage space.

He locked the door behind him, running over to the window, opening it and slipping out onto the balcony. The balcony in front of Natsu's door was about two feet away from the one he was standing on. Not an issue. He pulled his feet on the edge of the railing, balancing a little forward, jumping over the space and landing outside of the target's room, falling forward to distribute his weight soundlessly.

He used a knife to pick at the frame. It jutted out slightly and he slid in. There he was, pink hair, tan skin, white scarf. Silent, phantom steps. One. Two. Three. Four. He leaned forward, smirking.

"Found you."

The smile he saw in the reflection, two pointed canines that hadn't been visible in the photograph, made him tense in anticipation.

 _One target. Just one. That was all Gray wanted. One target that was a little more of a challenge, that was a little harder to pick off and didn't make him feel like he was executing sheep on behalf of wolves._

 _ **It's about fucking time.**_


	4. The Right To Retribution

There was half a second where their eyes met in the reflection of the screen and then they both sprung into action.

Gray's knife plunged down and Natsu dived down under the desk, kicking out the chair with his leg behind him, using the distraction to turn and put up a defensive stance.

Gray jumped up, kicking off of the ground over the chair as it flung out toward him, flinging out his hand as it gripped the knife, aiming to decapitate his target.

Natsu ducked down, leg shot out in front of him to trip up the man's stance.

"Wait-" he called out. Gray didn't wait. _Kill first, Ask questions later._

His leg gave out under the target's kick, but as he fell forward, he gripped the knife, facing it down to stab into the shoulder blade.

Natsu saw the knife coming a second too late and shot his hand out to grab it.

Gray's eyes widened as the blade was caught in Natsu's hand, the man gripping it, eyes flashing angrily as blood ran down his palm and dripped onto their clothes.

Natsu snatched the knife out of the dark-eyed man's grip, only for the man to jab him twice in the neck. Green eyes widened as he collapsed on his side, gasping for air, and Gray took the opportunity to climb over Natsu, pale hands wrapping around his neck, cutting off his access to oxygen.

Natsu struggled, hitting Gray, managing to plunge the knife into his thigh, blood splattering out onto the floor, and Gray's grip slackened for only half a second, but it was enough for Natsu to regain more control over his limbs and knock one of Gray's arms away, lunging at him in a flurry of limbs as he reversed their position, one hand pinning Gray's left arm above him, his foot shooting out to nearly crush Gray's other wrist, his free hand positioned over Gray's throat, smearing blood from the gash of his palm on the pale expanse of skin, pressing down tightly, but not enough to kill him.

"I said _wait,"_ he hissed out. Gray froze in place, breaths steady and slow, and, for a moment, Natsu almost believed that he'd gotten through to him.

Then three of the most dangerous members in the entire gang came bursting through his door and he knew that the man's sudden loss of motion had absolutely nothing to do with him. The assassin's breathing was even, he hadn't even exerted himself in that struggle and, had he perceived Natsu as the only enemy, he wouldn't have surrendered so easily. Comparing the steady pulse under his fingertips to his own pounding heart made it clear that, had he let his guard down for half a second, he would be a dead man. This man had frozen under his grip because of the footsteps that Natsu should have noticed beyond the door. Should have, but didn't.

Natsu stared at him for a moment, and those dark midnight tinted eyes stared right back at him, completely devoid of emotion. He cursed inwardly. He'd wanted to do this quietly. To _save this one_ and now the devil himself was entering his room. There was no saving him now.

The three men at his door froze, one with two blades in his hands, another staring quietly as he took in the scene and filed it away for future discussion, the last one walking forward with quick powerful steps, loud and thunderous.

Natsu smiled, "Laxus." Laxus blocked the view of the others as he loomed over Natsu and the man gone still beneath him.

"Natsu," Laxus bit out, a silent warning to back off and let things go smoothly for once in his miserable life, "I see you're not dead. Pity," he said, eyes shifting to the left to let Natsu know he didn't actually want him dead. Natsu rolled his eyes. This was a show for Acnologia. Zeref wouldn't care about Laxus and Natsu not getting along, they'd been at each other's throats since Laxus first joined and neither of them had tried to kill the other so far, but Acnologia would latch onto the conflict, trying to pit them against each other and then Laxus could tell Natsu more of what Acnologia was discretely trying to use against him. "You planning to hand him over any time soon?" he asked, looking at the man on the floor, voluntarily limp. Not that the three of them knew that. They couldn't feel the strain of the jaw against the top of _their_ fingertips letting them know that Natsu was holding down something wild and dangerous, like a storm, cold and ruthless as it blinded you and went in for the kill.

Natsu was a bit nervous about removing his hands from him, the guy was lethal and Natsu didn't think the wound on his thigh would slow him down enough. He let his hair fall over his eyes and stared down into that cold midnight gaze, his own eyes silently begging this man no to make a _stupid_ move against Acnologia or Zeref. Zeref alone was out of his league if he tried to fight him head on, he'd be dead in a ditch by morning light if he challenged Acnologia and, while he'd probably be on even ground with Laxus in mint condition, the knife stuck in the side of his thigh would eventually kill him if Laxus pulled it out and let him bleed through the fight. The guy looked confused for a fraction of a second before his expression went blank once more and he blinked once. Natsu prayed that it was a signal that he'd just go along with it and make this as painless as possible. He was trying to figure out a way to protect him and he was coming up empty. If Acnologia wanted blood, he got blood. No exceptions. So far.

And Acnologia had come to his door, blades drawn and ready, even wiped clean which was a rare enough occasion. The man habitually sharpened his blades, but he preferred to keep the blood stains as a show of intimidation, only wiping them clean when he knew he had another victim lined up. The sight of clean blades put Natsu on edge, the hand around the assassin's wrist tightening its hold. Clean blades did not bode well for this man's immediate future.

Natsu looked up at Laxus, not moving a muscle otherwise, "What did he do?" he asked. Acnologia wouldn't be at his door simply for an assassin. He'd sit back and wait for one of his lapdogs to bring him the new meat. Zeref might have shown up, but he'd have come alone, Blackhawk revolver raised and loaded and ready for the kill shot. Zeref had what Igneel had called _The Golden Aim._ The first time he'd picked up a gun, he'd looked at the red dot across the room that Igneel had labeled his target, raised his arm, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger twice. Both shots hit the same dot, shattering a hole in the wall with the strength of the impact and Igneel had nodded proudly. While Zeref hadn't shown up with his gun drawn, it was wedged behind his belt over his hip and his fingers were twitching with the impulse to grab it. It made Natsu all the more determined to remain exactly where he was, impeding his aim. Laxus wouldn't have bothered coming to save him, trusting Natsu to handle himself or sending in others to take care of the problem. The fact that he was here meant this was more than just a killer breaking into his room. Whatever this man did, it had to have been bad, an attack on the entirety of the elite force in order for all three of the men who showed up at his door to have deemed him a worthy enough threat to show up in person.

Laxus grimaced because Natsu could never just play along and _let things be._ He was going to piss off Acnologia, Laxus just knew it. A premonition deep in his bones.

Acnologia took two steps forward, dark blue locks swaying around him, gaze steady and bored. He was always calm and collected, condemning people to a bitter end with a bored expression, until the blood came out and his eyes flashed with life that no one but Zeref saw on a regular basis. Natsu was always uncomfortable around them because Acnologia looked at torture like a work of art, something beautiful and intricate and refined, the power he got from the screams locked in whatever person stood before him calling for him to let it out, to possess it. Natsu couldn't stand being around Acnologia and Zeref because whenever Acnologia looked at his brother, he looked at him the exact same way, as if beauty and class were locked behind inky black hair and pale hands that gripped revolvers too tightly. As if Zeref was something that brought immense joy to his life and he had to hold him, protect him, keep him all to himself. What Natsu hated most was not being able to tell if those glances were real or if they were a facade that he'd built with Zeref's analytical ability in mind. What made him turn away and block those looks out was the fact that he couldn't decide which option was worse.

Acnologia paused beside Laxus. He leveled Natsu with a measuring gaze, sharp eyes roaming over him and the assassin who had closed his eyes and breathed in slowly. His pulse was calm, calculating, and Natsu tried to decide whether or not he too was a monster. Whether or not he was worth risking his life over.

"The thing lying beneath you," Acnologia said quietly, voice calm and deep, "blew up the underground lot and bathroom and wedged his way up the vents to get to you." He paused, waited for that to sink in as he sharpened one knife against the other. Natsu watched, muscles tense, eyes narrowed in revulsion that he couldn't hide from his face. The blue-haired man continued, "We found the screws in the toilet. I can't be outdone by an _amateur."_

The man beneath him clenched his jaw tight at the word and Natsu shifted nervously, balancing on his only unoccupied limb.

Acnologia's chin was tilted up, eyes staring down at them with a sheen of superiority that had Natsu biting the inside of his cheek. He was no match for Acnologia. It was just difficult to keep that in mind when he wanted to rip his throat out more than anything. It was hard to remember that he wasn't physically capable of overpowering him when he dreamed of a day where he'd have his head for all the horrors he'd committed.

Natsu stared up at Acnologia, smiled thinly and asked slowly, "And you came all the way here for this… What did you call him? _An amateur?"_ _You're poking at a demon and you need to stop._

Dark fists clenched around the handles of twin blades. The insult was loud and clear. As was the implication. _You didn't come here to neutralize a threat, you sick fuck. You came here for a new toy to play with and I'm not handing him to you._

A monotone voice spoke up from behind and Laxus stepped aside immediately, clearing a path for the head of their gang. "The man breached security when other Snowden operatives could not, Natsu," he said calmly, "I believe it warrants caution." Excuses. He was always making excuses for Acnologia. Natsu didn't notice how dark eyes shot wide open at the mention of Snowden. These people knew too much and Gray was struggling to suppress his training. _You are not to leave any witnesses alive. You are not to allow anyone who knows of our organization to breathe any longer than necessary._ He breathed deep. For his survival, this would be necessary. He tried to think of ways to kill Natsu and make it out of the room alive. His mind was drawing a blank. _He's not handing you over yet. Follow his lead._

"He broke into my room. I should decide what to do with him," Natsu let out, grasping at straws. The man beneath him tensed at the words.

Laxus let his jaw drop in incredulity. He couldn't believe Natsu was denying Acnologia. He tried to make him see sense before he got himself killed. "He broke into the _complex_ in order to break into your _room._ He blew up Hellfire property. Hand him over." Zeref's eyes glided over Natsu curiously and Natsu refused to back down.

In the blink of an eye, Natsu stood, dragging the man up and pulling his back flush against his chest, feeling the leg that still had a knife stuck through it shaking against his own as he held the man up, bloody hand still around his throat, his smile wide, eyes glaring as his other hand gripped the knife. Natsu tilted his head forward to obscure their view of his lips as he whispered, "Trust me." The man went still against him, muscles strained and shaking, the pulse in his throat rising, and Natsu hoped it was a sign of acceptance. He was running out of options.

Laxus was the first one to react. "What the fuck are you doing?" he shouted out, taking a step forward. Natsu took a step back, smile still wide, and Zeref held out an arm across Laxus' chest. Laxus froze in place immediately, but he still looked angry and almost desperate as he glared at Natsu.

"Natsu?" Zeref questioned, curious gaze raking over him once more.

"Will he still be a threat to Hellfire _property_ if I pull the knife out?" Natsu asked, words dripping with sarcasm. His knuckles went white around the handle.

Laxus pulled out his taser and shot it in the assassin's direction. Gray's eyes went wide and watered, body jolting spastically in Natsu's grasp as Natsu let out an angry shout of protest and the man in his arms went limp against him.

"Laxus, what the _fuck?"_ Natsu snarled out, one fist clenching in burning rage as his arm wrapped around the intruder's waist.

Laxus smirked. "He doesn't look much like a threat anymore," he claimed. He didn't glance at Acnologia, but the blade wielding man gave him a calculating side glance of interest that disgusted Natsu more than he thought possible.

The words he said next wiped that look off Acnologia's face. "I'm not handing him over."

Acnologia took one step toward him and then Natsu and Laxus witnessed something that they hadn't seen in all of the five years since his arrival. Zeref crossed his left arm over Acnologia's chest. A clear sign of an action being denied to him and the widening of sharp eyes lined in black gave Natsu a sensation of the utmost satisfaction to hold onto through his ire. Laxus had a look of astounded incredulity but said nothing, waiting for Acnologia's reaction with bated breath.

Acnologia stood rigidly at Zeref's side, his shock palpable, looking into Zeref's eyes for an answer, but Zeref only locked inquisitive eyes with his little brother.

"Why not?" He appeared genuinely confused by Natsu's adamant refusal, but his voice was still serene. As if he didn't realize that the source of all evil stood behind his left arm. Natsu supposed he really didn't realize it if he allowed it into his bed at night.

Natsu encircled the unconscious man's waist tightly against his body with his arm, and removed his hand, with all its torn red glory from his neck, to hold it out for his brother's unblinking gaze. Then he spoke the words that he knew would hurt his sibling, but would strike a chord and make his request irrefutable.

"This man tried to harm me. Would you deny me revenge when you were granted yours?" he asked, glancing at Acnologia out of the corner of his eye. Acnologia looked absolutely _murderous_ and Natsu knew he'd just started an uphill battle, but it was only the beginning, he'd drawn first fire, and he was already winning. Zeref was wearing the same wounded expression he wore whenever someone made a reference to Mavis and the events that surrounded her death, his introduction to the ' _finer aspects of torture.'_ He'd long since left the dirty work in Acnologia's _capable_ hands, but for that one moment in time, he'd delighted in the sadism and he would never forget it. There was no world where he'd deny Natsu _the right to retribution,_ even if Natsu had no plan of hurting the assassin at all. They didn't have to know that. He just needed an excuse to keep the man in his hold alive and _whole_ and prevent him from becoming a lifeless slave to a demon's whims like the operatives who had preceded him.

Zeref nodded. Natsu felt a deep relief and gratitude that he didn't allow to grace his features.

He didn't realize the sort of disaster that hung over the horizon because of his choice.


	5. Similar Priorities

"I'm not putting that on him," Natsu whispered harshly.

Laxus looked like he was about two seconds from swinging at Natsu's head and said, "Do you think Acnologia will just let you keep _an assassin who breached the walls_ without trying to convince Zeref that you can't handle him?"

Natsu gritted his teeth, glared at the floor. Laxus was _right_ and Natsu knew that, he just didn't want to be cruel. He didn't want to see the man's body convulsing with the current again.

Laxus did not give a shit what kind of mental debate Natsu was having. He needed to get over it and he needed to do it _now._ "Do you think I'm stupid, Natsu?" he asked.

Natsu drew his brows together in confusion even as his fists remained clenched at his sides. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?" No. He didn't think Laxus was stupid. In fact, Laxus was one of the smartest people he knew, knowing exactly how to convince everyone he was on their side, playing the field like a game of chess and then taking out the enemy swiftly because he gained their trust. Their best double agent. That just had nothing to do with the present dilemma.

Laxus took a step forward into Natsu's space and said, "I know damn well you're not planning to torture that kid."

Natsu opened his mouth to argue that he would, to make Laxus believe it because if Laxus believed it then everyone else would. Natsu had gotten pretty good at lying, what with trying to find ways to protect members from exile behind the scenes, but Laxus was never easily fooled. If he could fool Laxus, he could fool anyone and his life and the man who had broken in were riding on his ability to act accordingly.

He didn't get the chance to because Laxus raised a hand and said, "Save it. You're not Acnologia. That's not your thing. You like to _save people."_ There was a heavy intonation on the phrase that suggested Laxus thought Natsu was stupid for trying. Natsu did do his best when trying to save people, though. Rescue missions had been his specialty under Igneel. Of course, now they had him focusing on explosives, but that didn't mean that Natsu forgot what he did best, what had made Igneel proud of him. And now Laxus was calling him out on it. Letting him know that it was a moronic move. _You're going to get yourself executed over a stranger who tried to kill you._

"I don't know what you're talking about." _Deny it. Lie._ Still, he knew Laxus would see through it.

"Acnologia can't take a knife to it if it looks like you've got it under control," Laxus said quietly, pressing the object into his hands. Natsu gripped it tight, hating how it felt in his palms.

"He's a human being. _Him,_ not _it,"_ he said, even as he accepted the object. Laxus snorted ruefully.

"I'm still not sure Zeref won't grant _it_ to his demon." There had been a time when the authorities came to the complex, a warrant to search the grounds for Acnologia, a wanted man across seven countries. The three hour search was filled with strained tension floating in the air as members all looked at the cops with disdain and outright hostility when the cops looked back with disgusted glares, hands on their holsters as if they wanted nothing more than to kill the 'dragons' in their sights and were only holding back because they wanted to keep their jobs. When their search proved an exercise in futility, the detective heading the search had stomped over to Zeref and shouted a question in anger and frustration. ' _Don't you realize the man you're hiding isn't_ human? _He's a demon! Why are you protecting him?'_ Zeref had leaned in by her ear, crushed the wire hidden in the lining of her shirt with his fingertips and said, 'The man you're in search of doesn't need my protection.' He stopped to smile and that chilled every person in the room because they had never seen him smile so coldly, because he lead them with a cool face of detachment and they had never known just how homicidal he could come off until he whispered, ' _I am aware that he is a demon… but it should be evident that he is_ my _demon.'_ His voice was a frightening combination of possessive and definitive. The woman, Erza Scarlet, had frozen in place, eyes wide and disgusted, before she led her team away. It was not the last time that the infamous Erza came to raid their base by surprise, but she never spoke to Zeref directly again, thinking him a new kind of monster, and her raids didn't have as much of an impact as the first one. It lingered in everyone's mind. It became a story that members passed along to new members, the fact that Zeref had stood calmly before the best detective in all of Magnolia, crushed her recording device, and claimed Acnologia as his own, as _his demon._ While members had bent over backwards for Acnologia before… they practically laid their lives on the line at his command afterwards.

"If the 'operative' is going to end up like the others, it's easier to think of him as a thing, not a person. It won't be a person for long if you don't play your part _right,"_ Laxus said, pointedly looking down at the item he'd given Natsu to hold. If they didn't think of the prisoners as actual human beings, then it would be less disappointing when another one became lifeless before their eyes. Green eyes shut in irritation. He opened his eyes again. Nodded. Laxus breathed out a sigh of relief as Natsu walked into the hall of cells on the third floor. It was a good place to keep captives, surrounded from every direction. Members on the fourth floor. Guards on the bottom floors. Fighters outside. Snipers in the towers. Cameras in every hall and facing ever surface of the outside of the complex. No way out. Laxus just hoped that Natsu would remember that and not try to break out the would-be-killer on the first day.

Natsu stepped inside the cold room, four dirty concrete walls, four lights imbedded in the ceiling. Plain. Simple. With a set of metal chains drilled into the wall that were welded at the ends with iron wrist cuffs and ankle restraints. The standard for a holding room. It was uncomfortable and unnecessary and there were no windows. The blonde girl hovered over the man in chains.

She turned at the sound of Natsu's footsteps. Good. She was vigilant, that would help her survive.

"You're the new girl Freed sent my way?" he asked, arms crossed, head tilted to the side curiously. She didn't smile. She stared him down before she turned fully toward him and stood.

"I might be," she replied. Stories got around. About Natsu, _The Salamander of Hellfire,_ the only man who dared go against Acnologia's wishes, the man who rebuilt the technological division from thin air to spare one man that Acnologia had deemed unfit. He had a reputation of taking new members under his wing, of keeping them safe and protected. If the Salamander chose you as one of the members under his command, it was like a godsend. A blessing. A fucking miracle in a shitstorm of curses. His hand reached out and kept people from drowning in the bloodshed.

She also didn't know him and didn't trust the words that people tossed out about him, as if he was some kind of legend. What she _had_ seen were the men under Acnologia murdering her father a year ago when he borrowed money and couldn't pay it back. She'd had to quit medical school. _How the fuck was she supposed to pay for medical school if she couldn't afford to pay the bills anymore and the debt she inherited forced her to sell the house and move into a rathole in the slums?_ Said rathole was the place she'd learned to defend herself in. This last year had been the worst year of her life because she couldn't even grieve properly with all the break-ins and the violence. Everywhere she turned in the streets there were people trying to eat, sleep, and kill, barely surviving and tearing at what belonged to others because of what they lacked.

She had run thirty blocks, losing her heels and treading on, barefoot and out of breath, when traffickers had swooped in and started taking girls from her workplace. She had been a pampered rich girl and suddenly she was running for her life at least once a week and barricading her door, stealing bars from another man's windows to forcefully install them on her own and feel the tiniest bit safe again. Then girls started disappearing from her building and she made a choice. Hellfire. She'd run to the library, accessed the computer and commented on an article that detailed the latest court case against Zeref Dragneel and the way all the witnesses for the prosecution had failed to show up and he walked free. Again. She had commented ' _Imbeciles. Trying to tame a dragon,_ ' and returned a few days later to check her email. Everyone knew that since the mysterious technological division rose again, new members didn't apply to the gang. The gang found them. Made them an offer they were too desperate to refuse. She hadn't been disappointed. They'd found her and she'd been brought in, blindfolded, into one of their territories.

She'd passed the initiation test, shot a man that they chose for her in his own home because he owed them money, and she'd been given her tattoo. A black dragon on her shoulder with red eyes. If she managed to get selected by one of the elite who wasn't Acnologia, by _The Salamander,_ she could put some kind of plan in motion to kill the bastard mercenary, avenge her father. It was a stroke of luck that Freed had noticed her failed education and sent her in to treat a man on behalf of the inheritor. She just needed to be sure that the man with pink locks of hair and green eyes was the 'just and noble' savior that other initiates claimed he was. She knew he'd killed people. She'd just been told he never killed an innocent. A gang inheritor with morals.

"He said you studied medicine," Natsu said, taking her in, the long blonde hair, the clipped nails, the golden necklace. She must have been a rich girl at some point. It was something about the way she stood, as if she had every right to stare him down when other initiates cowered before an elite. She wasn't afraid of him and that made him a little more confident in her potential.

"I dropped out," she said. Her eyes drifted to the man on the floor and she said, "But I know enough to treat wounds." As far as Natsu could tell, she'd already stitched up the wound in the assassin's thigh and wrapped it in gauze. Natsu smiled, bright and relieved and the girl stared at him with wide eyes, surprised at the concern that seemed to fade out of his features, concern that she wouldn't have noticed if not for the incredible difference it made a moment later to see it missing. He cleared his expression.

"I'm Natsu," he said, smiling a small calming smile that had her shaking his hand before she realized she was doing so, trusting him not to snap her wrist.

"Lucy," she told him. She smiled awkwardly and he let go of her hand.

He sat cross-legged beside the chained up man. She stood uncertainly, shifting from foot to foot, until he motioned for her to sit and she did so, bending her knees in front of her, observing the unconscious man and Natsu curiously.

"Can you treat most wounds?" he asked, staring at the man even as he directed the question at Lucy. She saw him gripping an object in his left hand that had her tensing up instinctively.

"Yes," she answered hesitantly, eyeing the object suspiciously. If he noticed her suspicion, he didn't comment on it.

For this, he looked directly at her. "Can you continue treating him indefinitely?" Indefinitely. He was telling her he didn't know how long this prisoner would be here. That he would get hurt again. That he wanted her to treat his wounds because he wasn't planning to kill him. This would be a job for her. Her golden opportunity to work under The Salamander's command and she didn't think he would be asking again. She still had her doubts, but he was _asking_ her to do something, not _ordering_ like other superior members had tried to. She felt her worries abating slightly.

She was nodding as she said, "I can." _I accept._

He nodded, gripped the item in his hand tighter and she suddenly knew he didn't want to use it. This man was the savior the others spoke of in hushed tones and paranoid whispers, afraid that those loyal to Acnologia would hear them. He was also a man forced to do things he didn't want to do to keep that position.

"They'll move you into the south wing of the fourth floor. Freed will sort it out for you. Just go upstairs and when they stop you say, 'Nakama.' They'll know I sent you. Freed will be behind the glass door in the room with all the huge screens." He wasn't looking at her anymore, eyes locked on the man in iron chains, still passed out on the floor. She let her eyes roam over the man once more, taking in the scars, the tribal tattoo running up one arm, the silver necklace, the lack of clothing because she'd heard the commotion earlier in the day and knew this man was responsible and they must have taken everything that could conceal a weapon. She stood and silently walked out of the door. She didn't know what Natsu would do, but she hoped it would be worth the amount of effort he was obviously putting into keeping the man alive.

Natsu let his shoulders drop when he heard the door close. His hair fell slightly over his eyes and he took in a breath. He knew he had to do this. Laxus was right. There was no other way to keep this guy alive now that his plans had gone down the drain. It didn't make it any easier. Natsu didn't enjoy causing pain. He didn't relish in the screams and the power. He just wanted to help people. When Igneel was around, Natsu had done that by taking out enemies quickly, distracting them with a small explosion on one side of their grounds while he crept in through the other, rescuing his own. His family. Now he did it by adding members to his division. He would have to teach them about explosions and weapon trades, not to mention the robberies for funding, but he would keep them alive and that was what mattered. This, though. This wasn't something he had experience with. This wasn't something he'd wanted, he'd just gotten cornered and took the only escape he could find.

He looked down at the thing in his hands and grimaced, but moved forward, latching it around the sleeping man's neck. Click. The man's eyes shot open and, in the blink of an eye, Natsu was underneath him, a tattooed forearm shoved into the hollow of his throat, staring into dark midnight eyes.

Natsu was about to speak, to move, to act when the man jerked above him, one hard involuntary contraction of muscles that had him crashing down over Natsu and breathing harshly as Natsu looked at him completely baffled, until he looked at the scarred blonde in the doorway. Natsu shoved the man off of him and yelled at Laxus, furiously, "What the _fuck_ do you think you're _doing,_ Laxus?"

Laxus's eyes were narrowed and there was a vein popping out of the side of his neck as he growled out, "Somebody had to. You'd let him kill you before you activated it."

Natsu snatched the second control from Laxus' grasp and Laxus yanked at his arm, pulling Natsu back toward him. "Is that was this is?" he demanded, rage visible in every line of his face, "You got some little crush on the destructive thing that broke into our _complex_ and you're willing to die for it? That desperate for a good _fuck,_ Natsu?"

Natsu yanked his arm free of the blonde's crushing grip and said slowly and quietly through gritted teeth, "You better tell me what the fuck you're here for, _Laxus."_ Laxus had _left_ and now he'd used electricity on the prisoner for the _second time in one day_ and if he didn't get out of Natsu's sight soon, he wouldn't be able to contain himself.

Laxus was still glaring at him, but he said, "I just came to tell you that Zeref said we'd need more funds for the expansion within the next couple of weeks, so you should get something in motion. Lots of fireworks."

Natsu knew that they needed more funds and he'd already chosen a bank, memorized the armored car routes, the delivery times, the guard names and their history, the list of workers, the location of the main vault. And he wouldn't mind discussing it with Laxus. _At another time._

He nodded tightly, slammed the door in Laxus' face, locked the door, turned around…

… and faced the midnight glare of a heaving chained up assassin.

Their eyes met for a long moment. Neither looking away. Neither blinking. Both studying the face of the man before them in greater depth now that they had the opportunity.

"You know, this would be a good time to tell me your name," Natsu blurted out.

The man blinked once and then stared at the ground. Silence.

Natsu sat in front of him, legs crossed, just out of his reach in case the guy tried to kill him _again._ Natsu sighed when the man didn't speak before pointing out the obvious. "Freed already checked your fingerprints and came up empty. Completely. Just like he did for every other operative Snowden sent in, so your name gives me exactly zero personal information about you because you're not on any database."

The man sat against the wall, head tilted back to rest against it, throat stretched back and exposed, eyes closed and Natsu almost tried again when the man spoke. "The other operatives," he said, eyes sliding open and roaming over Natsu, "They're in rooms like this?"

Natsu tried to interpret the emotion in that voice, but he failed and answered truthfully. "No."

The grimace he got in response to that told him more about this stranger than all of their previous interactions combined. He cared about someone among those five broken new members. "You didn't kill them," the man said. He sounded absolutely sure about it and Natsu would have felt offended, but he did risk his life to save this guy, so he could understand the skepticism.

"I didn't," Natsu admitted. He wouldn't have.

The man contemplated him for a moment, leaning the slightest bit forward and asking quietly, "Who did?"

Natsu opened his mouth, closed it, swallowed down the impulse to say _Acnologia_ and finally settled on, "They're not dead."

Dark eyes widened and shut briefly as the man regulated his breathing. Natsu thought it was interesting that he hadn't asked what they were going to do with him. That was usually a captive's first question. What was more interesting was that the first thing the man had asked him was about the other operatives. Not what he would expect from a cold-blooded killer. Natsu had only been captured once in his life. He'd been sixteen, straight out of initiation, and the first thing he'd asked had been, ' _Where do you have Evergreen?'_ The fact that this man was much calmer than he had been, but still had similar priorities spoke volumes about his morals and Natsu was the slightest bit intrigued.

"Where are they?" he demanded, voice deafening in the small room. Natsu winced. Scratch the part about the man being calm.

"They're working under Acnologia," he told him. The man snorted disdainfully before he saw the look on Natsu's face, the way he was biting his lip, the tense motion in his jaw, the absolute image of frustration flashing across green eyes.

The assassin's mouth dropped the smallest bit open before he started shaking his head slowly, eyes wide and disbelieving and locked on green ones searching for any trace of a lie. If there was one, he couldn't find it and still he found himself saying, "They wouldn't," with absolute surety.

Natsu tucked his legs beneath himself, fists over his thighs, and looked directly into the man's eyes. "He broke them," he said.

The guy was shaking, eyes clamped shut even as he balled his fists in an attempt to keep his composure. _What did they go through that could be_ worse _than the program?_ He didn't want to imagine it. He didn't want to think about the horrors that Shadow and Light must have lived through to willingly abandon Yukino and the organization to work for _Acnologia._ Not when the man was rumored to be behind the death of both of their parents. Skiadrum and Weisslogia had been political figures in Fiore, calling for a change in the structure of the branches of law enforcement. They wanted to downsize the narcotics division by fifteen percent and increase the size of the human trafficking task force as well as use the extra funds for an increase in training courses for new recruits. Most people didn't have an issue with the proposition, but there were people who had moles in the narcotics division whose jobs depended on that fifteen percent, vital resources that kept their members out of court by contaminating the evidence, people who kept their businesses profitable. It had been before Snowden had gained their reputation, and when the propositions started gaining popularity, those businesses had leaders who grew desperate and suddenly fifteen grand disappeared from seven different accounts and Skiadrum and Weisslogia were reported dead the following morning. The main suspect was _The Ghost Mercenary,_ but the money had been taken out in cash and there was no trail to follow. There were rumors that both men had illegitimate children, but those rumors had never been confirmed. Those children grew up to be The Twin Dragons. ' _He broke them.'_ Yeah, he would've had to. Shadow and Light would never follow him otherwise.

He said nothing.

Natsu could see the thoughts running through the guy's head a mile a minute, but this silence was unnerving. "Look, can you tell me your name? I need something to call you."

Again, nothing. A blank stare at him, and then the man turned his head upward just a small amount to stare at the point above Natsu's head.

"Fine." Natsu stood to leave and the guy looked directly at him, a cold glare that froze him in his spot. Natsu glared back angrily after a moment. No one had ever had that effect on him and it was just creepy. Not to mention he was risking everything to keep this guy alive and he wasn't the least bit grateful.

The frigid look remained across those features for a moment before the man glared at the ground and muttered out, "Take it off."

Oh. Right. He'd woken up just as Natsu clicked it shut. He'd been hoping he wouldn't have to talk about this. "I can't," he said.

A tightening in the pale jaw. Straining limbs and veins visible along those forearms, even the one with the tattoo.

"If I take it off, Acnologia will have a reason to kill you. I'm not taking that chance."

The man stared quietly at the wall, one hand rising up to grip at his neck, fingertips running along the smooth surface adorning it, and then a full body shudder overtook his limbs, and Natsu knelt in front of him, eye level with him, just enough space between them so that the man couldn't pull the chains far enough to strangle him. "I promise you I will never use it."

The man scoffed at him, incredulous and angry, even through the tremors that edged along his limbs. "Don't lie to me."

At that Natsu smiled, full and warm. "I won't lie to you. I'll never press the activation button on the control."

When the man no longer replied and wouldn't meet his eyes, Natsu sighed and decided to try the next day. The collar and the wound would be enough to convince Zeref that he was getting retribution. It wouldn't be enough for Acnologia, but he didn't have to worry about that just yet, not with the weekly elimination that would take place the next day. Acnologia would be judging the lower level members, evaluating them, and then branding one as a failure. He would be busy. _Thank god._ Although, Natsu had to bite back the grimace at the realization that he was now relieved elimination day was coming up. He made his way toward the door when he heard the man mutter something under his breath.

Natsu turned back around, his hand still on the door knob. "What?" he asked.

The man looked up at him, body reclined against the wall, one injured leg lying straight out on the floor, one knee up with his arm reclining on it, the other arm lying over his thigh, necklace glinting over his chest. He seemed to be warring with himself, debating whether or not to repeat himself until he finally held Natsu's gaze steadily.

"My name," he clarified. "It's Gray."

Natsu smiled brightly, wide, satisfied and breathtaking, pointed canines flashing in the light.

"Gray," he said, testing it out. He nodded. "I'll be back soon," he told him, smile still in place. Gray wasn't looking at him anymore, but Natsu felt a glimmer of hope in his chest. Maybe he could get through to him. Maybe they could work through this. Maybe he could keep him from the blades of Acnologia.

Gray sat in the room, hand reaching back up to the shock collar around his neck. He'd have to find a way to get out of this place. He needed a way to get the collar off first. He couldn't go through the electric shock again. He couldn't stand that feeling again. Natsu. The target had promised he wouldn't use it. Gray laughed maniacally. He'd spent the majority of his life learning to take out targets and now he was at the mercy of one. _Natsu Dragneel._ The file didn't match the real thing. Gray didn't know what to make of him. Smiling at the man who tried to kill him. Making promises to a man who had breached his home and wrapped his hands around his neck. Either he was completely insane or… he was a _liar._ Gray didn't know which option was preferable.


	6. Grateful

Natsu placed the tray of food in Gray's reach. It had a number of pancakes, muffins, and small fruits that he took from the kitchens, but Gray didn't touch it. He stared at it suspiciously.

Natsu rolled his eyes, sitting down in front of him. "It's not poisoned," he said.

Gray met his eyes before looking back down at the food and poking at it dubiously. "That's what you would say if it was poisoned," he said, still not biting.

Natsu shrugged. "Well, it's eat or starve. Not like I can get you out of here so soon."

Gray's eyes shot up to meet Natsu's.

"What?" he asked. The man couldn't have just insinuated that he would help Gray escape. That was madness. First promises and now this. Insane or a liar?

Natsu didn't repeat himself. "You should eat," he said.

Gray wasn't sure what the man was thinking and that made him tense. He was good at figuring out the way his targets thought, what made them tick, what drove them. Natsu wasn't fitting into any of his categories and that made him very uncomfortable as he started taking bites out of the food.

Natsu's phone rung out in the small room. He sighed frustratedly, running a hand through pink locks as he picked up. "Yeah?"

Gray listened for the words coming in from the other end of the line.

"We have a problem. Get down to the main floor _now."_

The voice, a man, sounded a little unnerved and his tone brooked no argument. Natsu went rigid on the floor, but still, he didn't agree immediately.

"Freed, what-"

His words were cut off by a harsh whisper.

"He selected a _twelve year old_ girl for elimination. Get down here right _now!"_

Natsu's grip on the phone went white and he bit out, "Why didn't anyone tell me a _twelve year old_ was in the recruits?"

"She just came in last night. There wasn't time. Natsu-"

Natsu interrupted him with the words, "I'm on my way," right before he hung up the phone.

He looked at Gray as he shoved his phone into his back pocket. He cursed to himself and Gray tensed, backing away a fraction. Natsu levelled him with a small apologetic look.

"This is gonna hurt," he warned, and then he was shooting forward in the blink of an eye and wrenching Gray's arm out of its socket.

The pain was so sudden and unexpected that a cut off scream forced its way from Gray's throat and then he was kicking at Natsu as he brought his other hand up to clutch at his shoulder.

Natsu stepped back, a pained look on his face that Gray didn't believe one bit, and said, "I'm sorry. I swear I'm sorry, I need you to play along."

Gray forced himself to regulate his breathing that had grown short and irregular. "Play along?" he bit out, "With _what?"_ He didn't care about the twelve year old girl. He didn't know her. Not his problem. Until her being selected for this so-called elimination meant that he ended up with a dislocated shoulder.

Natsu's fist suddenly swung out and clocked his jaw, and Gray knew a bruise would be forming and he stood, furiously fighting against Natsu even with the chains restricting his movements and his arm dangling limply at an awkward angle.

Gray ducked under a swing and threw himself forward, head colliding with Natsu's chin and sending him stumbling back out of his space. Natsu grinned, lunging back at him, fist headed toward his ribs and Gray moved aside, using his right hand to throw up his limp arm just in time to smack Natsu in the face and a laugh escaped him because, as much as it hurt, the sight of the man getting slapped with a limp arm, even his own, was comical.

Natsu's smile grew wider, but it faded when he finally managed to hit Gray again, the chains proving too restrictive for sudden movements even if Natsu was in such close proximity.

Gray glared at him as the man slammed his heel over Gray's right foot. He felt the bones in his ankle cracking and he gritted his teeth, not wanting to give the pinkette the satisfaction of hearing his pain again.

Natsu backed off and raised his hands in front of himself, a pacifying motion that made Gray scoff.

"I'm going to release the chains and I need you to play along," he said.

"With _what?"_ Gray asked again because there had better be a good reason for the ache in his shoulder and ankle, for the fact that he wouldn't be able to walk correctly until it was fixed.

Natsu moved forward and Gray put up as good a defensive stance as he could considering the injuries. _Pain should never be enough to incapacitate you. Do not allow it to be a weakness._

Natsu sighed, and said, "If I go out there without you, then Acnologia will force his way in here. If you're not hurt in some way, he'll say I can't handle you and then he'll…" he paused, not capable of saying exactly what he would do, "You'll become lifeless."

He moved forward again, and Gray reluctantly allowed him to remove the shackles. He had no delusions of escaping in this condition. He'd be killed the moment he showed resistance, but the feeling of freedom that came from not being chained down was incredibly welcome. The chains reminded him too much of the program.

Natsu moved toward the door, turning to look at Gray and Gray knew what he was asking.

 _Follow me. Play Along._

Gray gritted his teeth, moving forward along the walls as his ankle screamed out in protest.

 _Do not allow it to be a weakness._

Natsu breathed a little easier as Gray started moving to follow him. Acnologia always made a sick display of his captives on the first day he had them and if Natsu failed to, then Acnologia would call attention to it. Zeref would be curious and then Natsu would have to outright torture Gray to convince either of them he was capable of restraining the assassin. A dislocated shoulder, some bleeding hits, some bruising, and a fractured ankle weren't too difficult to manage. As they headed down to the lower levels, Natsu hoped Gray wouldn't pull an idiotic move and try to run here. The man seemed intelligent, attuned to his surroundings. Natsu knew they'd kill him before he made it off the premises even in good health. In his current state, he wouldn't make it past the ground floor.

They reached the main floor. Laxus was waiting for Natsu at the entrance and his eyes widened at the sight of an unchained bloody Gray with a limp and a dangling arm at his side. He scowled.

"Natsu, don't-" he tried to say, but Natsu merely shoved past him.

The door swung open and Freed was beside the doorway. He stood rigidly, his sword handle in his grip, and whispered, "Don't make any drastic decisions," without looking in Natsu's direction.

Eyes of new recruits and of respected members all drifted to the entrance, people tensing and their hands jolting toward their weapons as they saw The Salamander and a captive trailing behind him for the first time. Natsu wasn't known for torture. He didn't take captives. Ever since Acnologia declared his allegiance, all captives went to his blades, blades that were currently clean which did not escape anyone's notice. Natsu had stolen a captive from under his nose and the choice of the day's elimination made it perfectly clear that the man was not happy.

There was a lot of nervous shifting in the large room, whispers of doubt and hushed expressions of hopelessness. If even the rumored savior became a monster, many of them might as well save up for funeral costs.

Natsu paid them no mind, eyes searching around for Acnologia, and up front and center, there he was, tearing open the shirt of the girl and bringing the needle up to brand her skin.

"She's not getting eliminated today," Natsu said. Gray stood behind him, not meeting anyone's eyes. He wasn't in his element here and it was better to appear helpless and broken than to have at least thirty guns pointed in his direction.

The stares and the whispers grew in intensity, doubt warring with hope. Those who had been around longer, held their breath in trepidation. Laxus was glaring at the back of Natsu's head. Freed's eyes closed and his grip on his sword handle grew stronger as he held himself back from covering Natsu's mouth. He'd called Natsu, not to intervene, but to trail the girl after she was forced out so that they could protect her until she found a safe place to take refuge. Natsu was being so _reckless_ and one of these days it would come back to bite him. Evergreen stared at Acnologia, her hand on her holster. She would miss and if she took the shot it would be the death of her. Zeref himself would execute her. She knew that. But if Acnologia touched Natsu she would sign her own death warrant and try to kill him anyway. Natsu had protected her, had rescued her, had defended Freed. He had also picked Bickslow off of the streets and held him in a cell until the worst of the detox was over. His addiction to heroin had taken him over and Evergreen had tried to get him help before he disappeared. When she joined, Natsu and Freed found him and restored his health, gave him a purpose, and they'd given Evergreen her brother back. She would die for them, no questions asked. Bickslow stood at the back of the room, leaning against the wall. Natsu had given him a life, a reason to fight his addiction, and he wished the guy wasn't so fucking impulsive because Acnologia would decapitate him if Zeref wasn't in the room. Elfman stared wide-eyed at his pink-haired friend. Even he knew he could never measure up to the strength of Acnologia and it always astounded him that Natsu was that fearless. Mirajane gritted her teeth and put one hand over the dragon tattoo on her shoulder. She'd been nine years old when Igneel picked her off the streets and welcomed her to the family. She'd been there when Natsu was still a four-year-old, stumbling around and challenging Igneel or Gildarts to a fight, always getting back up with a grin no matter how easily he lost, playing pranks on the others. She'd even taken care of him when the others went out on missions that neither of them were old enough to go along with, when Igneel would take Zeref out to the room with the shooting range. Natsu was like a brother to her, especially since she'd lost Lisanna in a raid. If it proved necessary, she would take the brunt of Acnologia's blades for him.

Acnologia turned to Natsu slowly, even as Natsu made his way toward him, Gray trailing behind him, placing more weight on one foot than the other.

"And why would that be?" His face wore a smirk as if he was humoring Natsu by having the discussion at all, the needle about a centimeter from the girl's neck. Natsu's fists clenched and Gray let his eyes rise a bit to look at the scene, but the scene lost all of his interest the second he saw two men standing behind Acnologia, faces expressionless, stances ready to defend him against anything and anyone as if he was their king. Shadow and Light. The smirk on Acnologia's face seemed to taunt him. Objectively, he knew that smirk had nothing to do with him, but at the sight of just how lifeless his friends were, he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from lunging at the ' _Ghost Mercenary'_ of Fiore.

"I need her for the funding project," Natsu said, shrugging. Acnologia's grip on the tattoo gun tightened slightly and he pulled away from the girl, shoving her down against the floor, her cry of pain echoing against the ceiling.

"How would she," Acnologia began, one hand reaching out to grip at the girl's blue hair, yanking her up, "be useful," he continued, tone suggesting that a skinny little thing like her would be useless, "in the funding project?"

Natsu didn't back away as Acnologia held the girl up and out toward him, even as the rest of the room's occupants shifted uneasily. He looked down at the girl, eyes roaming over her form coolly before meeting Acnologia's gaze again. "She's small. Looks innocent. Cover up the tattoo on her shoulder and she's the perfect scout to send into the bank. No one suspects a little girl."

The girl stared up at Natsu with wide eyes, and Natsu didn't look back, the picture of detachment.

Acnologia looked absolutely livid.

"Fine," he said, and then he smiled a small cruel smile that made everyone dread what he would say next. "Pick anyone in the room. If she can last five minutes in the ring with anyone in the room, you can have her."

That was a decision that Acnologia knew Natsu would despise making. Anyone who lost to a member chosen for elimination would be viewed as a disgrace. He needed to choose someone that the girl would last against. His choice would likely get another member killed and he looked at the faces of other initiates, trying to find a way to get out of the situation he'd boxed himself into.

He didn't get the chance to make a choice because suddenly Romeo was stepping up from the back rows and coming forward asking for the girl's name. Natsu stared at Romeo in incredulity, silently begging him to turn back and not do this. Natsu had promised his father that he would protect the kid and there would be nothing he could do. Natsu knew Romeo. He was just as hell bent on rescuing people as Natsu was and he knew the kid wouldn't be turning back now.

The girl looked at him, eyes tearful yet determined.

"Wendy," she replied.

Romeo nodded, locked eyes with Acnologia and the man released his grip on the girl tossing her aside into the center of the room, directly into a circle. The ring, as they called it. Romeo stepped into it after her.

Acnologia turned to look directly into green eyes. "Is he your choice?"

Natsu locked eyes with Romeo, and the kid met his stare with a dark stare of his own, a small smile. He knew what he was getting into. He was taking the burden off of Natsu's shoulders. Natsu gritted his teeth and nodded.

Acnologia didn't smile again, but his eyes lit up and he nodded at the pair in the ring, waiting in a relaxed stance for the fight to begin. Natsu could see his foot tapping, he was counting the seconds.

"I'm Romeo," he said, stalling to use up more of her time. She nodded and showed far less hesitation than he.

Wendy lunged at Romeo, knocking him down in one swift movement and throwing a punch at his jaw. A punch that Romeo deflected as he punched her airway, the hit causing her to cough out and struggle for breath. He had to make this look like a real struggle or she'd be taken out anyway. He reversed their positions, hands enclosing around her throat and she brought up her knee to his abdomen, watching him double over. She hooked one leg behind his kneecap and pulled him toward herself, the movement knocking off his balance and she slammed the bottom of her palm into his nose, the blood pouring out over her as he punched her in the face.

Three minutes left.

Romeo sent three consecutive jabs at her clavicle, and she grabbed his fist, her arm shaking with the strain of holding it in place, and used her other hand to send a hit directly at his eyes. He reciprocated and their fight went on as they constantly got the best of each other, fists flying out to hit one another, legs locking as they tried to get the other off their game. Wendy could tell Romeo was holding back. She didn't have the luxury to do the same. She needed to be here, to murder Acnologia for the death of Grandine. One day.

One minute.

Both twelve year olds stood on either side of the ring, panting and out of breath, scratches all over their skin, bruises marring their limbs and faces, blood dripping from their faces.

They each ran forward and the sound of twin punches rang out in the room and they both fell back, a new bruise on each of their left cheeks.

Half a minute. Nervous glances were exchanged between the well-known members of Hellfire. Romeo had been one of their own, Natsu's prodigy, for over a year now.

Romeo charged forward and Wendy jumped up, his head knocked into her stomach and she latched onto him, taking the back of his scarf in her hands and pulling as hard as she could, cutting off his access to air. They both fell to the ground and she did not relinquish her grip. He'd done her a favor, and she was grateful, but she had to be the last one standing. For Grandine.

Romeo took hold of her wrist and twisted it in his grip, the sound of her cry loud and unexpected. He was part of The Salamander's personal division. He had more experience. Surely, he wouldn't lose.

The tapping of Acnologia's foot stopped. Wendy's arms were shaking violently with her grip and she finally let go, dropping to her knees, Romeo coughing before her as he brought in air to his lungs. The five minutes were over. Even if Wendy looked to be about a second from keeling over, she'd lasted the five minutes.

Natsu turned to level Acnologia with such a smug look and the man nodded, his glare malevolent and still. Natsu held back a grin of satisfaction. Then he saw Acnologia's eyes shift over to Zeref. People were staring at Romeo in increasing dread and didn't see the small upturn of lips Zeref was directing at the blue-haired man, nor the way Acnologia's eyes softened into something less murderous, a tiny show of weakness that only Zeref was welcome to see. Except Natsu noticed it and he turned away in disgust.

That was a mistake. Acnologia saw the look and his jaw clenched in irritation. He hardly ever allowed himself to demonstrate any form of affection for his equal precisely because others could use it against him. People who had no right to judge because it didn't concern them.

"Well," Acnologia said, watching Natsu intently, "It seems _Romeo_ is this week's choice for elimination."

"No," Natsu blurted out before he could think better of it, "He's one of mine."

Zeref stepped forward from beside Acnologia. "Natsu-"

Acnologia didn't care for wasting the effort it would take to calm Hellfire's precious Salamander and said, "But it seems like you just replaced him with Wendy."

The tattoo gun rested in his grip and he wasn't putting it away. There would be an eliminated member by the end of the day. There always was.

Romeo took a look at the girl, a glance at Natsu, nodded, and stepped forward, baring his neck to Acnologia. Natsu bit back his frustration, trying to think of an argument to save Romeo because he'd sworn he would keep him safe and now that oath was going up in smoke. Gray was silent as the high buzzing sound reached his ears. He could see the strain in Natsu's stance, the way the veins on his forearms rose into view along his skin as he balled up his fists, watching the ink bleed into pale skin. Suddenly it was starting to make sense. Natsu isn't the monster he was lead to believe. The only monster Gray can see is the one that his friends trail after like guards.

Natsu exchanged glances with Freed and Freed nodded, the slightest incline of his head. He would find an excuse to exit the complex and trail after Romeo, keep him safe until they found a safe place for him to hide. Lucy was in the front row, standing alongside all of the new recruits, biting the inside of her cheek so hard that she had to flick her tongue at the edge of her lips to wipe away the blood. Natsu started making his way to the stairs, sending a small side glance to Gray, his eyes darting around to observe how many people still had their hands on their holsters.

 _Follow me or they will kill you._

Gray allowed his eyes to fall back to the floor, his hair falling over his face to hide his expression.

Natsu glanced at Lucy, directed his stare at Gray's ankle. She nodded in his direction. She would treat him as soon as she could get away without drawing attention to herself. It was a shame that Acnologia paused as he caught the small motion.

Just as Natsu reached for the handle to the door, Acnologia called out, "Salamander?"

Natsu stilled, turned to look at the man.

"Your charge is looking a bit too clean for _retribution,"_ he said, "You wouldn't happen to need help with the thing, would you?"

Natsu dug his nails into his palm. He'd thought, for one brief moment, that he made it out of the demon's circle unscathed. Foolish. He glanced at Gray, in Acnologia's blind spot. He took out the remote. Gray tensed.

Then Natsu spoke, a low whisper for Gray only, even as the remote was in the view of everyone in the room.

"I need you to pretend. Acnologia will skin you alive."

His voice was a low plea. _Play along._ The realization that he wouldn't be pressing the button, that the electricity wouldn't course through him, frying his senses, made him want to collapse in relief.

Gray inhaled once, and then Natsu's finger was touching but not pressing the button and Gray let his body collapse on its own in violent spasms, ones that he knew instinctively from his childhood, letting himself fall back into the memories of the room with the lightning, a trail of drool falling out of the side of his mouth as he locked eyes with anxious green ones just before he let them roll into the back of his head. Survive. That was the rule that Silver put above the rules of the program. Survive. Natsu wasn't a monster like his file implied. Natsu Dragneel would help him survive intact, help him escape… and then Gray would rain down a war upon Hellfire.

He let his body go slack as Natsu's finger came off of the remote, all harsh panting and sharp intakes of breath, and Natsu smiled at Acnologia, full and wide, "I'll let you know if he's too much for me to handle."

The pinkette gripped the collar of the shirt he'd given Gray to wear, and dragged him out. He still dragged Gray across the floor in the hall, lowering his mouth into his scarf to muffle his voice as he said, "I need to keep up the act. Cameras."

Gray clenched his jaw, his irritation bleeding through as he made himself look entirely defenseless for the cameras, but he remained still, his arm still dragging at his side awkwardly. He didn't allow a muscle to move until they were back within the confines of his cold little room with four concrete walls.

Natsu placed the shackles on his wrists silently, placing a shackle on one ankle and letting the other remain untouched. He knew Gray had placed too much weight on his ankle in their little tour and one less shackle wouldn't make him any less of a captive. He leant into Gray's space, popping his shoulder back into place. Other than a wince, Gray didn't react, and that made Natsu smile softly.

They were silent, neither knowing quite what to say to the other. They hadn't discussed what they were doing, and Natsu had hinted at helping Gray, but how exactly he was supposed to accomplish that remained unclear. Shockingly enough, Gray broke the silence.

"What did he do to them?" For only a moment, Natsu had no idea what Gray meant, and then he remembered that the last two operatives to breach the fence had stood behind Acnologia. Gray wasn't looking up. His eyes were shielded by the hair that fell forward as he stared at his own legs, almost as if he didn't want to know the answer.

"You don't want to know," Natsu replied quietly. He wouldn't lie to Gray. He also wouldn't tell him things for him to mull over and feel unnecessarily guilty about.

Gray sat there against the wall, tense and frustrated, and uncomfortable that his feelings on the matter were the topic of conversation. He deflected, asking about something else that nagged at him from the little elimination ceremony.

"What's happening to the kid?"

It was Natsu's turn to look away in guilt.

"I'll find a safe place for him," he said, voice revealing just how little confidence he had in that outcome before he hesitated and finished with, "Or the public will kill him."

It was quiet in the room. Gray opened his mouth, shut it, tried again.

"So… he's an enemy of Hellfire now?" he asked, trying to make sure that he was getting it right, to understand just what sort of repercussions he was inviting if he intervened.

Natsu looked up at him quizzically, nodding slowly. "You… could say so," he said. The majority of Hellfire wouldn't protect him any longer. He was prey in open season.

Gray bit his lip. This could be the stupidest choice he'd ever made, but it might put Natsu in his debt if it worked and he weighed the benefits against the consequences before coming to a decision.

"I can save the kid," he blurted out before he could change his mind. Natsu's eyes locked on his and Gray spoke before the man could interrupt, "But I need a favor."

His target was looking at him with a wave of hope and a hint of hesitance and still he nodded.

Gray took in a breath and gave him very precise instructions on what to do. "Leave the kid at the fountain in the center of Magnolia park on the thirteenth five minutes before midnight. Someone will be there. When he sees the man, he is to say word for word, and I mean exactly as I'm saying it, 'The fans got too rowdy. I won't be back soon.' Those exact words," he paused, sending a questioning look to Natsu to make sure he got that before he went on, "Once the kid shows the tattoo on his neck, he'll be protected."

Natsu nodded frantically, hardly breathing, and Gray yanked him forward by his white scarf, their faces only a few inches apart as Gray glared at him saying, "And if anything, and I mean _anything,_ happens to the person there, I will find a way to get every single operative of Snowden into this complex and _destroy_ your so-called _empire."_ His voice fell to a dangerously low decibel, his words honest and threatening, which was why he was completely unprepared for Natsu's reaction.

Natsu _hugged_ him, arms wrapping around his neck in a tight embrace that froze every limb in Gray's body. No one had invaded his space so thoroughly since he lost Ultear.

" _Thank you,"_ Natsu told him. It was a quiet whisper that even someone on the other side of the small room would have struggled to hear and Gray just didn't get it. He couldn't understand it. Natsu was deliberately making himself vulnerable and exposed to Gray and Gray had been sent in to _kill_ him and nothing in the situation made sense. Natsu was hugging him and agreeing to do him a favor and Gray was helping him save a random kid who meant nothing to him in order to get a message to Lyon and it was all ludicrous. He couldn't process that the man he'd been sent to execute was clinging to him.

Natsu knew that this entire thing was so ridiculous it was laughable, and yet, he felt so goddamn grateful he couldn't stop himself. Once a recruit was chosen for elimination, Natsu could do exactly nothing. He'd tried to follow them before and protect them, but there was always someone else within the complex who needed protecting and eventually every single one of the exiled members of the family had been slaughtered like animals, the tattoo on their neck a one way ticket to see the grimm reaper. He hadn't been able to save a single one of them. Now Gray was giving him an option, an escape for one of his own, and he would sob in relief if he didn't have to walk out of the room looking unaffected.

Gray held himself stiffly in the man's hold, palms flat against the floor on either side of his own body. Natsu was in close proximity and it was tempting to follow the operative code, to just snap the man's neck and complete his assignment. _Always take out the target if you see a window of opportunity._ It was the number one rule in the program and yet, Silver's voice was still in his head stating the one rule he held above theirs. Survive. He could feel the urges warring within him until Natsu pulled away and Gray breathed a sigh of relief.

Natsu flashed him a bright smile and told him he'd be back with food soon, shuffling out of the room. Gray nodded even if Natsu didn't turn back to see if he responded.

He was mulling over the developments of the day, the presence of Acnologia, the lifeless demeanor of Shadow and Light, the fact that he had found a way to get a message to Lyon, the… strange… behavior that his target had exhibited. He waited for Natsu to return and when the door creaked open, he looked up expecting to see soft pink locks of hair and green eyes.

"Hey, Ice Cube."

Gray's eyes watered at the sight of blonde hair and navy blue eyes, at the sound of that voice, at the quiet pronunciation his old nickname.

"Light?" he asked, eyes wide and disbelieving.

Light nodded.

Gray wanted to weep, the urge to hug his friend appearing when he'd never done so before and he cursed at himself for letting the confusing pink-haired man influence him, and yet the first thing he asked was, "Why are you following that bastard?"

"I need to kill him," the blonde replied, and his eyes flashed with a look of such pure unadulterated hatred that Gray had to wonder again what could have possibly been worse than their training in the program.

"Our target is _Natsu Dragneel,"_ Gray reminded him because maybe completing the assignment wouldn't be the smartest move at the moment, but neither of them had ever abandoned a kill permanently.

Light didn't seem to care, scoffing and saying, "Natsu Dragneel is the only person who has tried to help us. I'm not touching him."

Gray openly stared at him. "What the fuck happened to you? Do you not remember the program?" The training they'd lived through would never have allowed for the words Light was saying. Refusal to complete their assignment? That wasn't an _option._

Light glared, jaw tight as he growled out, "Yeah, I remember the fucking program," pausing to narrow his eyes at Gray and speak slowly and clearly, "I also remember what it's like to hear Rogue screaming under the demon's blades and I dream about it every night. Every fucking night." He looked like he might cry as he kept talking, "The program never broke Rogue, but here, Rogue is quieter than ever, like he's given up."

Gray realized that 'Rogue' must have been Shadow's real name and he wanted to ask more questions, he wanted to console his friend, but-

"You need to get out of here, Natsu's going to come back any second now and-"

Just then, the door opened and all three people in the room froze in place, Gray staring anxiously at the man in the doorway, Light standing protectively in front of his form, and Natsu frozen in place, his jaw falling slightly open as the door closed behind him.


	7. It's Not Like He Would Fall In Love

The tall blonde didn't move forward. He also didn't move back. He stood, arms tightly held at his sides. He didn't appear threatening, but his stance, legs parted and bent minisculely at the knees, showed that he was definitely not harmless. He knew his ex-target had tried to help him and Rogue. What he didn't know for certain was whether or not the man was in league with Acnologia and trying to get him or Rogue to rise to the bait only to betray them. The program destroyed their ability to trust easily and, while he'd overheard the stories of The Salamander as he passed by the new recruits, saw Acnologia's frustration with the pink-haired mobster, he didn't know what was real and what was an act. If Natsu turned out to be a liar, he'd have to kill him here and now before the cameras started functioning again and try his damnedest to cover up his involvement. He clenched his fists as he saw the slackness of the man's jaw. He needed more of a reaction. He needed something fast to come to a decision.

He had learned Gray's real name a while back, by coincidence. He'd been on a case when Rogue was hurt once and the doctor had kept copies of the hospital birth records of all the kids he'd delivered. He'd seen the name 'Silver Fullbuster' on the document and suddenly he knew his friend's name. The program was good at wiping all digital traces of a person but they couldn't destroy records that they didn't know existed. Not that he told Gray he knew. He'd done him a favor and burned that copy of his birth records. He and Gray were friends, he'd trust Gray with his life. The thing about Gray was, he was never meant to be an assassin. He'd done so because his father had screwed with his mind to the point that he couldn't even contemplate other options, but Gray had _mercy._ He'd saved some girl when her abusive father was the target and even given her a recommendation for the program, vouched for her. He was completely oblivious to the way Juvia felt about him due to his heroic antics, but he'd left her, a witness, alive and even aided her survival afterward, wiped her from the system. Gray was a talented assassin, sure. He was also a flawed one. He allowed himself to make little exceptions that others wouldn't. Sting knew he couldn't judge. He was also flawed. Assassins weren't supposed to care about others, weren't supposed to fall in… love. He had. He'd been stupid enough to fall in love, to make the one mistake that was worse than any of Gray's and he had seen two options. Kill the target and die for the program. Or lie low under Acnologia's command until he could gain his trust, kill him, and die getting revenge for Rogue. He knew he wasn't getting out of this alive. With enough planning he could execute Acnologia or Zeref and escape, but not both. So he would kill the man he hated most and let the other kill him in turn. If Natsu proved uncooperative, he'd have to kill him and frame Gray for it. He would hate to do it, because he did care for the operative, but given the choice between protecting Gray and protecting Rogue, there was no choice at all. He would always be loyal to Rogue. Even as broken as he'd become. He still saw little flashes or Rogue every once in awhile, when he tried hugging him at night in the room they were given and Rogue hesitantly hugged him back. If Acnologia was gone, maybe one day Rogue could be the person he used to be, he could be free. If Sting could give him that much, it would be worth laying down his life for.

Natsu heard the door shut behind him. He reached his hand back, watching the blonde operative for any sudden movement, and hesitantly, locked all of them in. Tension seemed to ease out of Gray as he did this, even as the blonde only tensed up more. Natsu almost smiled. It seemed Gray was beginning to understand what his actions meant. He'd locked the door as a sign of faith. It incriminated him as much as the other occupants of the room were incriminated. Locking the door meant he couldn't tell Acnologia what was happening because he'd be asked why he didn't report it immediately. While Natsu could see that the unchained operative didn't trust him, it seemed he was making progress with Gray.

He shrugged, walked straight past the blonde, and set a bag of takeout in front of Gray, sitting down beside him. Gray raised an eyebrow at him for bypassing a real threat entirely, even as his lips twitched and Natsu smiled because he could tell the man wanted to laugh.

Sting turned to the man from his file incredulously, looking down at him in puzzlement. Natsu was silently taking food out of the bag, handing a burger, fries, and a can of soda to Gray and taking a matching set of items out for himself.

"I would have brought more," he said to Gray apologetically, "But you didn't mention we'd have company."

Gray purposefully bit his lip to keep from bursting out in a fit of uncharacteristic giggles because he'd never seen Light look quite that level of dumbfounded and Natsu was just… the man was a riot. There was no other word for it. He just had no understanding of boundaries or self-preservation and it was entertaining. Gray remembered the last time he'd felt the urge to laugh. Shadow, or _Rogue_ apparently, had been pulling a bullet out of his abdomen, Gray was weak with blood loss, Light wasn't back yet, and Gray had suddenly felt like the entire situation was just hysterical.

Gray took a breath to calm himself. "I didn't know we'd have company."

It sounded like they were talking about the weather and Light was fidgeting and Gray just couldn't take it anymore. He snorted inelegantly, covering his mouth with one chained up hand as his shoulders started shaking.

At that point, Light stared at him, then looked at Natsu with an awed expression that made the pinkette tense in apprehension.

"What?" he asked, fidgeting uncomfortably. He'd actually been thinking that he was finally getting a positive reaction from his would-be prisoner, but the blonde operative's expression made him nervous.

Sting shook his head to clear his thoughts. This guy was either an idiot or really, really abnormal. First he'd ignored Sting's presence completely, then he made Ice Cube laugh. The last time Snowden's prince laughed, actually laughed not just chuckling, he'd been half an inch away from death's door with a puddle of blood beneath him, delirious. The man looked a little worse for wear, what with all the bruising and the way he hadn't been able to put much pressure on one foot down in the main room, but he didn't look to be in critical condition. Natsu Dragneel, the man they'd been sent in to murder, had made Silver's son laugh. The world of the Hellfire Elite was scary.

He put on his most charismatic smile, it wasn't as bright as it had been but he still had his charm. He held out his hand. "Sting Eucliffe," he introduced himself.

Gray started coughing into his hand, glaring at Sting. Not even Gray knew his name and now he was revealing it to a target? Oh, that was unacceptable. Natsu patted Gray on the back and the glare deepened, zeroing in on a clueless pink mobster.

Natsu shook the hand, no hesitation. "Natsu Dragneel." Right. As if they didn't know that already.

He pulled his hand back and held up the disposable box toward the man he'd just met.

"French fry?" he asked. Gray laughed harder because the sight of a target, a tan man with pink hair and a casual suit, offering one of the Twin Dragons a _french fry_ was absolutely priceless.

Natsu was trying very hard not to smile and failing miserably. Sting stared at him for another small period of time before he nodded and sat beside him, taking a few fries and chewing slowly.

Natsu rolled his eyes at the caution. "It is not poisoned," he said, for the second time in one day.

"That's what you would say if it was poisoned," Sting informed him, pointing a french fry at him.

Natsu turned to look at Gray because that was exactly what he had said in the morning and Gray shrugged, taking a slow sip from his soda and maintaining eye contact as if to say, 'no, I'm not sorry.'

Natsu raked an exasperated hand through his hair and turned to Sting.

"So you've been faking? The whole time?"

Sting froze uncomfortably, but nodded once. It wasn't like he could deny it at this stage. He still hadn't decided if it was best to kill Natsu there and make certain of his silence on the matter or to trust him.

Suddenly the fries were on the ground, Gray was pulling at his chains, and Natsu was looming over Sting, a hand wrapped around his throat.

"Let go of him," Gray shouted out.

"Shut up," Natsu bit back, glaring at him, "If you're making noise, Acnologia will be sent down and trust me, neither of you will see another day."

"Get your hands off of him." It was a harsh whisper that Gray let out as his eyes burned holes in the side of the pinkette's head. Sting hadn't been prepared for the sudden outburst and he was turning red with the straight in his arms as his hands pulled at Natsu's wrist. Natsu was strongly than he looked and he currently had the advantage.

Natsu deliberately ignored Gray as he began his questions.

"Tap one finger on my wrist for yes, two for no. Do you understand?"

A strained nod.

"Does Acnologia know you're here?" For all Natsu knew, this could be Acnologia's knew creative way to get information on him.

Two fingers. _No._ Good.

"Are you loyal to him?" A rapid press of two fingers. Natsu assumed he wasn't the moment he saw the man in the room, but he could never be too careful.

"Is your objective to kill me?" A second of hesitation. Two fingers. Natsu grimaced. So Sting wasn't sure yet, he would still kill him if he deemed it necessary. Oh well. Natsu figured Gray still wanted to kill him too.

His grip tightened and Sting was turning a light shade of purple. Still, he remained still in place. Natsu had to admire the operative 'program' for how well trained its members were.

"Are you trying to kill Zeref?" At this his eyes narrowed. A weak press of two fingers. He searched for any signs of a lie and saw none. He allowed his grip to loosen. If Sting wasn't faking to get an opportunity to kill him, and he wasn't doing so for a shot at his brother, then the next most likely candidate was an enemy within the walls that Natsu equally wanted dead.

"Acnologia?" he asked, voice far less harsh and demanding than it had been for the previous question. The blonde hesitated, breathing slightly easier now that Natsu had eased off of his airway, looking into green eyes with trepidation. Slowly, Natsu felt the press of a single finger against his wrist. _Yes._

Natsu nodded and let him go, climbing off of him and sitting back down on the floor. Gray stilled as he watched Sting, making sure the man could breathe properly. He understood the necessity from the point of view of a Hellfire member. That didn't mean he was any less protective of one of the four men he considered family. Sting, Rogue, Loke, and Lyon. Silver wasn't a part of his family. Silver could go fuck himself with a ten foot pole.

Sting coughed once. Twice. Willed away the abnormal coloring on his face and leveled the Elite man with a strange look as he rose up and sat again, their odd little circle quiet and tense.

Gray spoke up first, eyes back on his food as if nothing had happened. "So both of you seem to want the 'Ghost Mercenary of Fiore' or the 'Demon of Hellfire' dead," he began, ignoring the sound of gritted teeth from both of his recipients in conversation. He knew Sting had issues with the whole Ghost Mercenary title because of his parentage, but Natsu's reaction to the word 'Demon' was worth filing away for later. "Do either of you have a plan?"

He already knew neither of them did. Sting was the kind of assassin that went in guns blazing, making a bloody scene and taking the target head on. Natsu had so far confronted Acnologia twice in Gray's presence and, while he did manage to get himself out of uncomfortable positions, he had not done anything particularly stealthy. If he managed to get that Romeo kid to Lyon, Gray might reconsider his opinion. But only slightly because it was his plan to begin with.

More gritted teeth. Silence. So he was right. No plan. Well that was just brilliant. Gray might have let Natsu live indefinitely if he could take the name Acnologia as one of his kills, but that didn't seem to be very likely. He might still have to take Natsu out. It was a shame, really. His eyes roamed over the man's frame, lithe body, the strong arms that had held him up, tightly against a hard body, bright green eyes, a smile with sharp incisors that would feel torturously good on his skin-

Sting cleared his throat, looking pointedly at Gray as Natsu fidgeted under the intensity of his gaze, pink dusting across his cheeks. _Interesting._ Gray allowed a small blush to rise on his features, looking off to the side in feigned embarrassment at being caught staring. Sting looked at him oddly, because he didn't buy the act for a second, but Natsu's eyes widened and his blush deepened. He tugged up his scarf over the lower half of his face and Gray couldn't help thinking it. _Cute._

Natsu was trying to cover up his flustered state. Those eyes had been taking him in as if a million lewd fantasies were playing in Gray's head and while Natsu got his share of admiring looks, usually people turned tail when they realized what was branded on his shoulder. Those within the family were either women, which he was fine with as friends but didn't appeal to him in a carnal way, or they were straight and therefore not on his list of options, or already involved, and he appreciated both Laxus and Freed but even if they were single, Natsu didn't see Laxus getting along with him long enough to actually do anything and Freed would be too busy protecting Laxus to even consider anyone else, not to mention Freed was like a brother to him. In fact, other than a single one night stand, Natsu only resorted to an escort service for company. Though, that stopped five months earlier when the assassination attempts started and, needless to say, he was a bit restless in that regard. Gray staring at him like he was more appetizing than his food was causing very ill-advised reactions in him. Natsu had started going to the escort service precisely because he didn't want to gain feelings for someone he could lose, and getting involved with a fucking assassin, of all things, who also happened to be a prisoner in Hellfire would be an incredibly stupid decision. Gray sent him a tiny, nearly nonexistent smile, like they had a secret just between them.

Laxus' voice was ringing in his head. _That desperate for a good fuck, Natsu?_

Natsu bit his lip, lifted his head, eyes drifting slightly over an exposed collarbone, and sent a tiny smile back. _Maybe._

And anyway, it wasn't like Natsu would fall in love. Not with someone who killed people for a living, even as interesting as the man was. That would be ridiculous.

The blonde was growing uncomfortable with the tension in the room, and he knew exactly what Gray was thinking and he knew it was a horrible idea.

"I actually do have a plan," he said, hoping to get his point across by comparing the situations and covertly letting Gray know his interests were best placed elsewhere. _Never get involved with a target. Never._

Gray didn't reply, just looking at Sting expectantly. _Ice prince, indeed._ This was the reason Sting thought Gray needed to socialize more often. If he didn't, he just became more icy as time went on. He wore solitude well, but that didn't mean he should wear it all the time. Still, Natsu Dragneel was _not_ the ideal man to socialize _with._ He'd be good for a secret alliance, maybe. Not for any actual involvement. The man had authorities coming in to raid his home every few months. He had a number of powerful enemies calling for his head. Gray always thought through all of the technicalities, but in the moment, his heart was his greatest weakness. He couldn't kill a truly innocent person. By the looks of it, the youngest Dragneel might just be a problem for Gray. Especially if he was considering making a move on him to gain his trust. He would get attached because that's just how Gray _was._ It was why he didn't allow himself much personal involvement with anyone. He'd even ordered in a service at a secondary location a few times to take off the edge, a fact that Sting only knew because Yukino had glanced at Lyon's phone as he went over their expense account and the title "Male Escort Service," left little doubt as to what that particular expense entailed. Gray had never been with a person more than once. As soft as Sting thought Gray could be, he'd never allowed himself to fall in love, he'd never made the mistake Sting had. Sting just didn't think that would still hold true if he got involved with Natsu fucking Dragneel for an extended amount of time, because the Elite 'dragon' was just the kind of hero that Gray would feel conflicted about, just the kind of fighter, based on that surprise attack he sprung on Sting, that Gray would feel matched him and that was a disaster just waiting to strike.

Worst part was, in the past few weeks Sting had been watching the pink-haired inheritor closely, trying to determine if the man was more like the hero the new blood admired, or the murderer he'd assumed. He'd been trying to judge whether or not Natsu Dragneel could be an ally. So far, he'd seen the man measure up to every heroic and dramatic story sent around, and this little encounter only proved the words circling around about The Salamander. That would have been great for Sting, if not for one minor inconvenience. If Natsu Dragneel gave into the bloody Ice Prince of Snowden's advances, then Gray would be just the kind of strong person with potential that Natsu would want to _save._ It wasn't that Sting _wanted_ Gray to be harmed, far from it, Gray was the person he was most protective of after Rogue and Yukino. What Sting worried about was that Natsu would reveal too much, show leniency where it shouldn't be showed. If Natsu made a single mistake, Acnologia would slice Gray open. Sting didn't think he could hold out for a real chance to kill the man if he heard that the demon ended Gray's life. He would lose himself in a rage and attack, probably dying in the process without succeeding.

"What plan?" Cue Natsu. Well, he was certainly straightforward. It didn't reassure Sting in the slightest.

"I'm remaining under his command, gaining his trust. I don't see any other options."

Gray snorted sarcastically, but Natsu eyed him intently.

"How close does he let you get?" It was asked curiously, but his voice had a hint of hope.

It probably wasn't the best way to phrase his reply, but Sting wanted to get his point across as vividly as possible because he'd been forced to endure it so he might as well share the experience with someone else. "Close enough to hear him and the current leader fucking through the door each night," he said, completely serious.

Natsu flinched, hard, and a trickle of blood made its way out of the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his sleeve before it could drop to stain his scarf. The thought of that monster touching his brother still gave him chills. Mavis would have been disgusted.

"Right," he said through gritted teeth. Every muscle in his body had gone taut with that sole piece of information. Each night. That vile murderer had his way with Zeref every night. He thought he could feel bile rising up his throat and then a touch on his hand snapped him out of his nausea, cold elegant fingers brushing against his as Gray picked up Natsu's soda and shrugged.

"You weren't drinking it," he said, a smirk in place. Natsu averted his eyes from that dark stare, watching that pale throat as Gray swallowed, watching a tongue lick across that bottom lip. He felt his breathing speed up when he noticed Gray was still watching him.

Sting sighed heavily and both pairs of eyes turned to him. Those two were going to get involved and get each other killed. He just knew it. Sting met Gray's eyes. _Just, please don't fall in love with him._ Gray met his stare, a small amount of confusion on his features. He knew Sting could tell he was trying to gain Natsu's affection, it might just help him escape. What he didn't understand, was why Sting didn't approve. Sting had just said he was trying to gain Acnologia's trust, and perhaps the method was different, but Acnologia was already involved and notorious for being impervious to all sexual advances. Natsu was a different story. _Always take any advantage you can find, any means necessary._ And it wasn't like Gray would do it solely to gain an escape plan. That was part of it, but he also found Natsu attractive, and he hadn't had sex in a while, throwing himself into case after case, so what was the harm?

It wasn't like Gray would fall in love. Not with a target, especially not one who seemed to have some kind of heroic complex that would likely get him killed within a year or so. The idea was almost laughable.

Sting kept counting out the minutes in his head. He had about ten more minutes before the cameras would come back on, his makeshift encryption on the software wouldn't last much longer with the like of Freed Justine. He knew that the structure of his virus would probably give the green-haired man a clue as to where he might find Snowden online, but he couldn't allow himself to worry about that. He wasn't loyal to them anymore.

He stood, "I have to go."

Natsu caught his wrist and held him back, looking up at him. "You managed to disable the cameras, right? Or Acnologia would already be here."

Sting nodded, not removing the tan hand, but looking back at the door, the urgency of his getaway clear.

The door swung open and a wide-eyed Lucy stood in the entrance. Natsu let go of Sting's wrist, jumping out forward and pulling Lucy inside the room, slamming the door shut.

"Lucy, I need a favor," he said, voice rushed.

Lucy was staring at Acnologia's 'pet operative' with horror and Natsu called out, "Lucy!"

She turned to him. "What?" Her words were high pitched and he didn't have time to calm her down. Sting was looking at the blonde girl with dread.

"I don't have time to explain," he told her, "But he is not our enemy, and I need you to go to the main floor, out to the west wing, and turn off the power. There's a secret exit behind the bookshelves, just pull out the red book on the left corner of the top shelf, put it back and close the exit behind you."

Lucy opened her mouth, shut it, shrugged off Natsu's hands from her shoulders and nodded. She didn't know what was going on, but she was part of his division now, and he had a mission for her. She would trust him to keep her alive long enough to murder Acnologia. She would do what she had to do. She placed down the medical supplies by Gray, noting that he was already setting to the task of treating himself, and she swept out of the room, glancing one last time at the tense expression on the other blonde's face and sending him a curt nod. If he was allied with Natsu, and his actions were a facade for Acnologia's benefit, then she would accept it. So long as someone made Acnologia drop dead, she would be happy.

The door swung shut behind her and Natsu turned to Sting. "Do you know your way back through the complex to your room?"

Sting nodded. Natsu went on speaking. "As soon as the lights go out, find your way back up. You'll have five minutes before the members on the fourth floor realize that it's not just a glitch in the electricity and send people down to check what's happening. Be in your room before then in case Acnologia decides to send you."

Sting took in the advice, the way Natsu hadn't hesitated to come up with a way to help him, with a way to use Lucy's intrusion to his advantage, with a plan that took into account that Lucy wouldn't be seen by the inactive cameras, but that the cameras would likely be back in working order before Sting made it back to his quarters and had managed to come up with an idea to block any visuals those cameras might receive. The infant dragons had said that Natsu was once known for rescue missions. Sting didn't think they were lying anymore.

He wanted to thank him. He hadn't thanked anyone in a long time. He opened his mouth to say something. The lights went out. He opened the door and ran for the upper levels, trying to get there before the others started coming out of their rooms and getting in his way. He'd have to save the gratitude for later.

Natsu waited for the lights to come back on with bated breath. When they did, he sighed in relief. There was no huge commotion going on above, meaning someone had merely been sent down to fix the power and no one had seen Sting.

Natsu let himself drop unceremoniously to his knees, sitting in front of Gray, taking one last bite from his burger, observing Gray quietly.

Gray had let himself think about Natsu's actions, his instant plan, his ability to gain people's trust so easily. He had thought Natsu was reckless, but he wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe he was just less afraid than others were. Or brave in spite of those fears. Natsu was smart, capable, willing to risk his life for others. For Gray. For reasons Gray understood more than he wanted to. Natsu didn't want to let someone uninvolved in Hellfire's internal affairs, nor did he want to lose members. Gray didn't like to kill witnesses to his assignments, bystanders. He'd also kill for his own. His mother had told him about a man she'd dated in her childhood, when Gray was hurt and she'd wanted to calm him down so that Silver wouldn't put him through more gruelling training. She'd told Gray about her first love, about a tall boy with long red hair, who had planned to run away with her. Then his family heard about his involvement with her and he was taken away. She never saw him again, not in person, but she'd heard about him and the life he'd lead. Gray had asked her why she didn't look for him and she told him, ' _Sometimes… we have to make sacrifices to protect the ones we consider our family… our Nakama.'_

Gray hadn't understood her then. He understood when Lyon dropped out of the assassin program, taking the handler training instead so that Gray wouldn't have to take orders from a stranger at Silver's beck and call. He understood when he left in the middle of an assignment to search for Ur and Ultear when they were taken, only to complete that assignment with more violence than he ever anticipated when their bodies were found. Years had gone by, but Hellfire's massive increase in violent crimes occupied the police force and no suspect had ever been found. Even if Gray hadn't seen Rogue, looking entirely blank, he still had a reason to resent Acnologia. Because of him, Gray still had no clue who he had to blame for his mother and his sister's deaths. So maybe, for Ur and for Ultear, for his _nakama,_ he could let one target go free if it meant said target was genuinely competent enough to develop a real plan to murder Acnologia. If it meant that Gray could claim the death of Acnologia under his name, he would finally be a tier one operative. He would finally be on Silver's level.

But right now he was just a lowly Hellfire prisoner in Natsu's custody. That would still have to change. Even if he chose not to kill the man, he still had to gain his trust enough to receive his aid in an escape, in a proper plan to execute the demon.

Gray unbuttoned his shirt, meeting wide green eyes with his own.

"What…?" Natsu didn't manage to finish his question as his eyes caught on the exposed white flesh. His seemed transfixed as Gray finished unbuttoning his shirt, his chest and abdomen on display.

He shrugged, laying his head back against the wall, his throat completely exposed, bared for the teeth currently biting Natsu's lower lip. "It felt kind of hot in here," he explained, the smirk on his lips betraying his true intentions.

Natsu moved a little closer, and just then, the door opened and Lucy took two steps inside before she blushed scarlet and walked right back out.

"I-I'll be back later," she stuttered, not even turning to look at them as she took long strides away.

The way Natsu had stared at him, like he was ready to take him, was gone now. It was replaced by a mildly embarrassed look and Gray found himself feeling unusually disappointed.

"I, uh, I'll just… be back tomorrow. Lucy should treat your ankle and… Right. Okay. Night." He was stumbling over his words and Gray had to bite his lip to keep from smiling because the man was fucking adorable and that was a dangerous thought for Gray to have. It was probably why Sting had looked so damn concerned. Still, Gray had had sex. It didn't require a connection for release. He just wouldn't allow an attachment to form. Natsu was standing now, almost turning away awkwardly.

Gray smiled, lowered his voice, "Goodnight, _warden."_

The pink on Natsu's cheeks rivalled the shade of his hair as Gray let his shirt fall off one shoulder. Natsu nodded, not quite sure his words would form coherently, inwardly berating himself for his lack of self-control and the fact that his freaking imprisoned assassin had such an effect on him. He walked out, and a few minutes later Lucy came back in.

She treated Gray, asking him nervously if he and the heir were… an _item._ Gray stared blankly for a while before her persistent gaze frustrated him enough to say, "No."

She looked at him dubiously as she went back to wrapping his ankle in a sort of makeshift cast, tight enough to limit his movements with it, but not entirely. Finally, she nodded and said, "He's chosen me to treat you."

He didn't answer her. Instead, he silently decided that he would definitely need to seduce the youngest Dragneel. If he'd chosen a Hellfire member, and judging by her stance a newbie, then he hadn't yet thought of any real plan to help Gray escape or to kill the demon so that an escape wouldn't be as difficult. If he was enamored by Gray, the process might go by a little faster.

Obviously, Natsu wasn't the target he ought to be aiming for. The blue-haired mercenary had a bigger price on his head and Gray knew a number of people wanted that head on their walls, Natsu, Sting, and himself included. And Sting had already said he wouldn't touch their original target.

Gray made his own choice. As long as Natsu wasn't the kind of man that deserved to die, he wouldn't kill him. He'd wedge his way into the man's heart, secure his own protection, and wait for the moment where he could take out Hellfire's newest legend.

Acnologia.


	8. Two Messages

"Mira, I can't-"

"Natsu!" she admonished him, her voice a harsh whisper. They didn't know if Acnologia had bugged their phones or the hallways, but at this point everyone who was still sane enough to work against him spoke in whispers. If there weren't recording devices, there were spies keeping an eye out for any small piece of information to carry back to Acnologia in an effort to get recognition. They were stupid, because once Acnologia noticed them, he kept an eye on them. If they got information for him once, he expected the information to keep coming, and when it didn't, those so-called spies were looked at as failures and became candidates for the next weekly elimination. Sometimes the man selected more than one person and made a little game of it. That was the reason they'd drawn the ring in the main room. Training happened in the west wing. The sole purpose of the ring was for the demon to see blood. Mirajane continued. "It's been five days," she reminded him, her eyes staring him down as if he were an idiot for not realizing it.

He _did_ realize how long it had been. He knew exactly what he had to prove. He also knew that he simply wasn't ready to prove it.

"I _know,"_ he replied, his frustration and helplessness pouring out of him.

She sighed. He knew her disappointment was in Hellfire and the kind of place it had become, in the lengths they had to go to to simply keep their own alive, but it was getting hard for him to believe that she wasn't just slightly disappointed in him too. It hurt. He only cared about whether or not he disappointed Zeref at this point because he was starting to wonder who his brother would choose if it came down to Natsu and Acnologia. A few years ago he would have been certain Zeref would never leave him behind. He wasn't so sure anymore. Acnologia was deep in Zeref's veins, spreading like a disease and Natsu couldn't find the cure. So he worried about disappointing Zeref, but knew he could make up for it in numbers. Revenue. Disappointing Mirajane was different. Disappointing her _hurt_ because she'd been there long before the others and she was the closest thing he had to a sister. Mirajane had been a kid too, but she had practically been like a mother to him with how often she took care of him. Disappointing her felt almost like he was disappointing Igneel. It made him _need_ to explain.

"Mira, if I bring him along, everything's gonna fall apart. We _need_ that money, or he'll use it as an excuse to kick out someone from my division, Wendy because he didn't get to last time." He willed her to understand, but she scowled at him.

"We also _need_ you to be alive and we _need_ Zeref to think you're capable of handling your division because if he doesn't then everyone is sent under Acnologia and we're _screwed,"_ she informed him, shoving her way into his room. He tried to argue, but she didn't let him get another word in, her face red in anger and frustration, "I know Laxus gave you a collar, I saw it on the kid. You have enough confidence to parade him around but you can't take him outside with it?"

Natsu fidgeted uncomfortably from foot to foot and looked up at her, trying to find a way to explain or lie and then her eyes widened and he knew he took too long.

She brought a hand over her mouth and then let it drag down to her neck anxiously before she spoke again, "You didn't actually press the button."

She said it quietly, but he heard her. He'd known the words were coming. He wished lying to her were easier. He wanted to deny it, but the words caught on his tongue.

"Natsu, you… you're working with the kid?" she asked, trying to piece it together.

"I-" he started, but she didn't let him get any more words out and he didn't know how he would have finished the sentence anyway.

"What are you _thinking?_ Natsu," she paused, trying to get the urgency of the matter across, "He tried to _kill_ you! Do you understand that? Is that-"

He finally got fed up and once again said, "I _know!_ Mira, I know." He tried to stress the amount of time he'd already thought about this, "But he wants Acnologia dead just as much as we do." Natsu didn't actually know that. Gray hadn't outright said so, but Natsu could practically feel the bloodlust dripping off the midnight-eyed man when Acnologia had been in front of him. He could see it in those eyes when Sting spoke of his plans to get close to the demon. If Natsu could get Gray to trust him, he knew he'd have an ally. But if he ever pressed that button, any trust he might have gained would be gone in the blink of an eye. He couldn't risk taking him out there so soon. They'd barely established some form of peace. Natsu had been busy between making sure Romeo could stay alive long enough to be at the fountain the night before, and planning the strategy with his chosen group for the bank robbery, especially getting Wendy to scout it out a few days earlier and making sure that no one caught on to her affiliation. He'd only been in to see Gray a couple more times, and each time he got called right back out for some more planning or some emergency.

At this point, he relied on Lucy to bring Gray food and water and to tell Natsu when the man needed to use the bathroom. Natsu had escorted Gray each time, although he'd also stood rigidly outside the door when Gray showered, since Acnologia had bolted down the air vents and Gray had no way out anyway. A very wet Gray in only a towel who needed Natsu's support to walk if his ankle was going to heal any time soon was not something Natsu knew how to deal with. Because Gray had leaned on him a lot more than Natsu felt was actually necessary and at this point Natsu was sure that Gray was flirting with him. Everything that came out of his mouth had some kind of innuendo that made Natsu squirm and the fact that Gray had taken to calling him 'warden' in the most sinful tone was not helping him keep a clear head. He wanted Gray. He wanted him bad. He just knew that he wouldn't be able to handle it if he got involved with him and then messed up and had to step aside as Acnologia took pieces of him. Natsu would feel guilty enough already for failing him, he didn't need sex to get in the middle of that… despite how close he knew he was to crossing a line that he really really shouldn't.

Mirajane looked like she wanted to scream at him, but she stopped herself, fists clenched paler than the rest of her skin and she gritted out, "No one. No one wants him dead more than we do."

Acnologia had been the one who had insisted that if Lisanna wanted to stay in Hellfire, she had to prove her worth. Both Elfman and Mirajane had gone with her on the raid, but it was above Lisanna's pay grade and one bullet had gone past Mira and hit Lisanna right in the chest. There had been too much blood too fast and Elfman had pulled Mira away because he knew it was too late and he heard the police sirens. He was devastated when he lost Lisanna, but he couldn't lose Mirajane too. She'd bit her lip so hard it split and blood poured down her chin to match the tears pouring down her face as they left Lisanna behind, her pulse too slow for any chance at survival. She'd hated Acnologia ever since.

Natsu's eyes softened and he reached out to hold her hand. "I know, Mira…" He wanted to comfort her. To hug her and tell her that he missed Lisanna too, but he knew that wasn't what she needed. He also knew that he needed to get his point across. "But he's a professional assassin. He made it inside my room and no one managed that before. He could help," he insisted.

She wasn't looking at him, instead focusing on the busted wheel on his desk chair that he hadn't gotten around to fixing. When she did turn back to him, her eyes held a new intensity that he had to step away from. "And after that, you'll kill him?"

She knew he'd killed before. She'd been there with him the first time. She also knew he didn't like it and the fact that she was asking him… it made Natsu take another step back in shock, his eyes wide and disbelieving. "What?" he asked, voice low and incredulous. She couldn't have changed that much.

"He can help," she replied quietly, "But his target is _you_. He's a threat to _you._ "

Natsu shook his head, "I would be grateful-"

"Grateful?" she asked, her tone dripping with acid, "I don't know what he did to get you to trust him, but I noticed that Romeo's body isn't in the morgue yet, so I can take a fucking guess," she said, her eyes watering, "But if you don't get your priorities in line, then he's not going to _live_ long enough to off Acnologia." She paused, he hand gripping her tattoo as if she was wounded, she did that when she was nervous. "And neither are you," she added.

She was right. She was always right. He just didn't want her to be. He didn't meet her eyes.

She walked toward the door and just as she gripped the knob she said, "He's wearing a collar. You have the remote. You take him out there and if you need to, you fucking _use it."_ She turned it, opened the door, and left.

He dropped back on his bed, stared at the ceiling, and let out a breath of air. He couldn't use it. If he took Gray with him, he might have to. If he didn't take Gray with him, Acnologia would wonder why he wasn't broken yet, why it was taking Natsu so long when Acnologia was usually done within the first three days. Gray's ankle was better now. He didn't even have that excuse to fall back on. Either way, Natsu was fucked. Every day felt like he was locked in a box as the water rose up to his neck and he could never find the way out. There was never a crack in the walls. He just wanted to feel like he could breathe again. He couldn't use it.

Natsu had left Romeo by the fountain and, as Gray promised, someone, a man with white hair, had shown up. The man had tensed when he saw Romeo sitting there and his hand had went behind his back in a movement that Natsu recognized, like he might pull a gun out at any second. Natsu had been in one of the trees on the far end of the park, watching and waiting for that movement to finish because if the man pulled a gun on Romeo, Natsu would kill him regardless of what Gray threatened. Then the man had relaxed his stance as Romeo showed him the tattoo on his neck and he'd looked around before heading to the parking lot, Romeo following him silently.

Just before Romeo stepped into the car, he'd turned to where he knew Natsu was hiding and he nodded once. Natsu had told him to shake his head if he'd been threatened. Romeo hadn't. Romeo also knew when and where to contact Natsu in case of an emergency, and Natsu knew he could protect himself. Romeo had gone easy on Wendy, he could have defeated her in under a minute with how much he'd trained, but he'd wanted to save her. Natsu trusted him to take care of himself. Natsu also knew that the fact that his prodigy was still breathing was something he owed Gray for. He couldn't push the button if he needed to. But Mira was right. He had to keep Gray _alive_ more than he wanted to keep him comfortable and for that… Gray would have to come along. Even if Natsu wasn't ready for it.

Acnologia was always ready with his prisoners because he broke them so quickly that they practically worshipped him. How Sting had survived the ordeal with his mind intact, Natsu didn't know. Natsu hadn't broken Gray. He hadn't even tried. Bringing Gray along would be the biggest risk he could take because he trusted the assassin within the walls. He didn't know if he could trust him out of them. If Gray tried to take advantage of the open space to escape or contact someone, Natsu's options would be limited very quickly. He thought about Acnologia. About the clean blades. He shivered. He didn't have a choice. It always felt like he didn't have a choice.

He got up, made his way out of his room and down to the captive floor. It was already nine thirty. Lucy brought food to his only captive every morning at eight and each day at four. It was a routine. Gray didn't speak much to her, but Natsu had stood outside of the door, listening once as Lucy told him about her life and how she'd gotten there. Natsu had learned that Lucy was a lot more dedicated to the fall of Acnologia than he realized, and when he stepped inside, the look on Gray's face was slightly less closed off than it was when someone like Laxus walked in and it told Natsu that Gray was beginning to trust her, if only a little.

Natsu stepped into Gray's room… cell was probably the more appropriate term… and Gray's eyes shot up to meet his, the trademark smirk on full display as his shirt was completely unbuttoned and he had one foot flat against the floor, the damaged ankle completely healed. Natsu tried to compose himself. He didn't have time to entertain thoughts of ripping the rest of that shirt away, of taking Gray against the wall and making sure he couldn't walk straight for days. In fact, he was relying on Gray's ability to walk for his involvement. He shook his head and closed the door behind himself, walked over to Gray and sat in front of him.

"I need a favor," he said. He didn't know how else to bring it up.

Gray leaned forward, close and in his space and Natsu suddenly regretted sitting so near him as Gray stared into his eyes, then at his lips before asking, "What kind of favor?"

Natsu wanted to close the space between them. Gray was sex on legs and Natsu wanted to taste, he just didn't have that luxury and he sighed, angry at himself for it when his breath ghosted over Gray's lips and the man bit his lip looking seven different kinds of irresistible. He leaned away from him, and Gray looked confused for a fragment of a second before he crossed his arms and waited, expression blank with a hint of disappointment. It seemed like Natsu was just disappointing everyone today. "I need you to rob a bank with me."

Gray blinked, snorted, and then his eyes widened as Natsu shifted uneasily. "You're serious?" He hadn't meant for it to sound like a question, but it did and Natsu nodded.

There was a brief silence as Gray took in the implications of what Natsu was saying. He was taking Gray out of the walls. Gray might be able to escape. Then he remembered the blonde man that had pressed a remote before. He'd seen Natsu take the second remote away. That didn't mean _Laxus_ didn't have another copy. Still, if he found a way to disable it… if he showed his face in front of a security camera, Snowden's software would recognize him immediately, and Lyon could disable it… but Gray wouldn't be able to break into Hellfire the same way twice and he didn't know how else he could get close enough to Acnologia to kill him. He didn't know if escaping was his best option. He had gotten a message to Lyon, but nowhere in that message had he implied he was asking for help. He'd only asked for time. As far as Snowden knew now, he hadn't failed his mission, he'd only extended it. The fact that he wasn't trying to kill the youngest Dragneel anymore wasn't… relevant. The best way to get to Acnologia was to secure a position within Hellfire. At Natsu's side.

He'd already planned to seduce the pinkette. If he pretended to be loyal to him, if he didn't attempt to escape, then Natsu would trust him more, let him in. If Gray was completely honest with himself, he also didn't want to give up the conquest just as he'd settled on going through with it. He'd decided to get Natsu to fall for him, and fall for him he would. It would be a shame to have put so much effort into attracting him, just to throw it away in an attempt to leave. He also knew that Natsu didn't completely trust him yet, seeing as he hadn't slept with him, and that meant that if Natsu was under pressure, he might still resort to using the remote. Gray could tell that Natsu was… good, for lack of a better word… but that didn't mean he was on Gray's side. Gray couldn't trust him, because Natsu was still his keeper. If push came to shove, he wouldn't choose Gray. Not yet. This little outing could change that.

He nodded. Natsu eyed him with shock and trepidation. "You can't run yet. I'll get you out eventually, but I still need you here and-"

Gray cut him off, "I understand."

Natsu didn't think Gray understood. At all. "If you escape, Acnologia will-"

"Kill you?" Gray asked.

Natsu shook his head. That wasn't it. Acnologia would find Gray and murder him just to make a point. It had to look like Gray had disappeared, been taken against his will. Natsu needed time.

Gray shrugged. "You do realize I was sent in to kill you?" he asked the green-eyed dragon.

Natsu clenched his fists, the conversation sounding a little too much like the one he'd had with Mirajane but Gray took Natsu's fingers in his and thumbed over the back of his palm gently as he said, "Relax," his voice soothing, "I'm not targeting you anymore."

Natsu felt heat rising to his face because the way Gray said that sounded like he was confessing, not telling him that he was no longer a threat to his ability to breathe. He also knew that taking Gray out on this job mean that if Gray turned on him and managed to kill him, he'd have both remotes, be able to disable the collar and run free. He wasn't sure if Gray meant the words or if he was just trying to lull Natsu into a false sense of security before he bled him dry.

Gray must have seen the doubt on his features because he said, "The blue haired guy has a bigger price on his head."

The relief in Natsu's gut was unbelievable. If Gray had already thought of going after Acnologia, Natsu wouldn't have to talk him into it. He didn't know if Gray was lying or not. He couldn't tell, but hearing that he might have an assassin's help taking out the ghost mercenary lifted a weight off his shoulders. That, and Gray was still holding his hand. Natsu flushed brightly and pulled away, clearing his throat. It wasn't like Natsu was innocent, far from it. He just didn't understand why Gray seemed to have such a huge effect on him so easily. It was frightening, how Gray holding his hand relaxed him so quickly.

He tried to focus on the job, detailing the plan to Gray in the little time he had. Gray nodded along, making suggestions and by the end of it, Natsu felt a lot more confident about the funding project than he had before, even if he wouldn't admit that to Gray who looked far too smug for his own good.

Of course, when Natsu called Freed to tell him to inform the others of the adjustments and of Gray's participation, Freed was silent for a long time as if the quiet would make Natsu realize the stupidity of his actions and then there was a tired sigh and Freed had said he understood. Natsu knew he didn't.

That was how Gray, Natsu, Mirajane, and Lucy ended up in a moving truck parked half a block from the bank as Elfman shut off the engine. Lucy smiled nervously at Gray. He sent her a small nod of encouragement in return. Mirajane saw how… clean Gray looked and she glared at Natsu. She didn't like hurting people, but she knew when it was necessary. Natsu studiously ignored her gaze and waited for Elfman to open up one of the backdoors. It was stupid to bring in an outsider on a job. However, Gray had to be there. It wasn't his skills that made his presence essential, but the fact that he was Natsu's first captive and Acnologia could control all of his captives within the first few days, so after nearly a week, if Natsu didn't appear to trust Gray to follow his lead and instructions, Gray would be taken from him. Natsu wouldn't allow it. He was simply nervous because if Gray tried to run, he'd be taken anyway.

They each climbed out. Lucy wore a preppy school uniform, a diamond bracelet on her wrist, strapped on flats so that she could run, and green contacts. Freed had also molded her makeup so that she looked nothing like herself and they could use her on future jobs. There were several knives strapped to her thighs and a gun tucked into the back of her skirt beneath the blazer. Mirajane had a similar getup, only she was dressed like some sort of business woman, her skirt much tighter, all black. The knife she had was hidden along the inside of her thigh rather than the outside like Lucy's because Mira had more experience and she probably wouldn't need it anyway. She also wore a blazer, but while Lucy's was beige, hers was black. Both hid their guns easily. Mira's earrings appeared to be little clear spheres, but if she inserted the ends of them into someone's blood stream and squeezed those spheres, they'd be knocked out for a half hour. It wouldn't kill anyone, but if she didn't let anyone close enough to search for a pulse, she could pass it off as poison and scare the others into cooperating. Her hair was brushed back, but she was wearing a dark gray fedora hat that would obscure her face from the cameras and she had gone tanning a few days earlier to make sure her skin tone wasn't her own. Given any luck, the police reports would list her as a latina and she wouldn't be a suspect.

Natsu wore a black suit that fit him perfectly, and he had one gun strapped to his ankle beneath the pant leg, another tucked into his waistband hidden by the jacket. He didn't think he'd need them, but they were there just in case. He'd left on remote hidden in his clothes at the complex and kept one in his pocket, his hand nowhere near that pocket because he didn't want to press anything by accident. Gray's collar was thin. Inconspicuous. He'd been given a black turtleneck to hide it, and a blade of his own which he kept up his sleeve. He didn't get a gun. It was a sign he wasn't trusted. He didn't mind it. He could get through the experience without one. He'd done worse with less. He did, however, let the hair fall over his eyes and he'd insisted he needed a scarf to cover his jaw structure because even if his eyes were out of the camera's sight, his jawline would be picked up anyway and he couldn't let the software recognize him.

Snowden's software was in everything digital in the city, people just didn't know it. If he was seen in the same shot with a Dragneel and a blade and he didn't kill the man, it would raise questions among his people. They would think him a traitor, and then operatives would be sent into Hellfire to kill him as well as the many targets in the complex that had their names on someone's list. Hellfire was a lot less united than they had been years earlier, but Acnologia's reign had made their fighters brutal and formidable, more so than they had been before. It would be an all out war and Gray would be caught in the middle of it with enemies on all sides and he wasn't quite up for that. It could be avoided as long as he wore a simple black scarf and played his part without drawing too much attention to himself. He figured Silver would recognize him on the servers no matter what he wore, but he was hoping that Silver would pick up on his plans for Acnologia.

It would be obvious. Why else would he remain under Hellfire's watch? Because he grew a soft spot for a pink-haired dragon? He snorted. Not likely. The again, Silver had an astounding lack of faith in him and he might just let the wolves at him anyway. He was hoping it wouldn't come to that. He was also hoping that if Silver _did_ see him on the surveillance feed, he would just ignore it as if Gray wasn't worth his time and effort anyway. It would be insulting, sure, but it would gain Gray time and he needed time.

They split up through an alley behind the bank, Mirajane and Lucy walking slowly to the front, and Natsu and Gray went into the alley.

Lucy had a designer purse, like many of the rich girls who went to private school would, and she and Mirajane stopped at the entrance to the bank as Lucy got the ringing phone out of her purse, right on time. She pretended to have a brief conversation, and waved Mirajane off, letting her go in alone. Mirajane sighed as if she was irritated and went inside. She got into the line for the metal detector, making small talk with the nearest security guard, her voice much lighter than usual.

Lucy smiled, appeared to hang up the phone, and walked over to the nearest atm outside of the building. She slid in the card that Freed had given her and watched as the screen went black and line after line of code appeared before her. She stood directly in front of it, waiting for instructions to come in through the phone and they did. Freed sent her precise instructions on what numbers to plug in in quick succession and when to wait for the machine to process them, when to start again with new strings of code. He sent an astrid, and she placed her purse in front of the money slot, trying to cover up the fact that money was shooting out of it and into her bag. She repeated the process with the second machine as Gray passed behind her, his hand taking the gun from beneath her blazer in one swift motion and tucking it into his own waistband out of sight. She'd learned sign language when she was young and she'd asked him silently if he would need her gun when he went inside. He hadn't responded verbally either, he'd nodded once and she was pleased that he understood the language and that no one had seen the interaction. She was sure Gray could make do with a knife, but she didn't think he should have to.

Inside, Mirajane had just set off the metal detector. The closest security guard dropped his amiable smile and took out the wand to scan her. She waited patiently and just as the guy was starting to pat her down, Gray came in and shot his arm, the bullet passing far too close to Mira for her comfort. Still, she wasn't going to stop to complain. She was also livid that Natsu must have given Gray a gun, but she held her tongue. Gray was supposed to come in and stab, not shoot. It worked in her favor, she just didn't trust him. She pulled out an earring and just as the second guard was aiming his gun to shoot at Gray, she plunged the sharp end into his neck and squeezed, watching as his limbs went slack and he fell to the ground. Gray's gun was trained on the third guard and Mirajane took out her gun and aimed at the receptionist. She shot her left hand, ignoring all the screaming. Gray was blocking the exit. Mirajane shot the girl's right hand and shrugged. She wasn't going to let anyone hit a panic button. Natsu needed five minutes.

She lifted the gun slightly, levelling it with the woman's head. "You're not going to bleed out. I didn't hit any arteries. You're going to get me into the vault."

Gray didn't speak, keeping his face hidden in the scarf the way he'd seen Natsu doing it. He wasn't used to wearing a scarf so he figured he should follow the pinkette's lead since he hadn't seen the man without his white scarf. He kept Lucy's gun steady in front of him, kept himself near the exit. No one was leaving until Natsu sent the signal. This would also keep anyone from checking on the series of atm machines outside. There were five of them and Lucy had to get to all of them. During business hours a single atm machine could hold anywhere from ten grand to two hundred grand. It depended on the size of the bank. A mid day hit should generate at least fifty grand per machine and the five machines would give out a minimum of two hundred and fifty grand. Gray doubted that amount would last very long or measure up to what Hellfire made on a weekly basis.

The job was hanging on Natsu now. It was a medium-sized bank, with a minimum reserve of at least fifteen million and Gray had helped Natsu break in the employee entrance, but if there were three guards in the front, there were probably four or five guarding the area near the vault and Natsu would have to take on all of them. Not to mention that they'd set off an alarm and Natsu had two minutes left before the police would receive the signal since no one would punch in the code, three minutes after that before the police would arrive. Mirajane and Gray were just the decoys. Lucy was the backup plan. Natsu was the one that was up for the real money. He'd brought the duffel bags. Gray would be pissed if he risked his ass and those bags came out empty. He knew he wasn't getting any of that cash, and he didn't need it anyway since he was well off financially, but it was the principle of the matter. Gray's entire lifestyle could be fucked because of this little mission and he wanted to see results. If he also wanted to see if Natsu was strong enough to take on several guards on his own, if he was worth all the effort Gray was putting in to seduce him, no one had to know.

Gray saw the remaining guard's hand inching toward his gun. He rolled his eyes. He aimed and fired, right into the man's abdomen. As long as an ambulance came within fifteen minutes, the guy would live. Gray wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Mirajane was currently yelling at the woman with bloody holes in her hands. If they were going to buy Natsu enough time to steal the money and take out the video footage, they had to keep the show running.

Natsu pulled out one of the needles from the wrist band he was wearing. It was Gray's and Gray didn't exactly give it to Natsu, it was just confiscated when he was searched for weapons, but Natsu found himself thanking Gray for the idea. It was very useful. He'd shoved one needle into each of the guard's pressure points on the edge of their necks, stunned at how quickly their bodies froze in their positions, limbs caught midair. He would have to get one of these for himself after this was all said and done. He shot at the padlock on the vault, glad he chose one of the older banks because if it had been reinforced, he would have had to call Freed and he knew Freed was busy with Lucy. He checked the time. He had about three minutes before the cops would be there. He walked in, shoving all the cash in sight into the bags, lining his waistband with the rest and closing his suit to cover for it. He slipped out and into the surveillance room, shooting the arm of the panicking man inside and shoving him onto the ground. He shoved the needle into his pressure point quickly, not up for dealing with the terror.

The man wasn't going to bleed out from a little scratch. Natsu looked at the feed on the computers, shutting off the cameras and ejecting the tapes. He shoved the tape from that day into his pocket, wiping away any fingerprints, and then he turned and stepped back out into the hall. He checked the time. One minute. He knew Mirajane would be furious by now. He stepped out, and shot three times at the electrical box near the employee exit. Sparks rang out and then the lights from inside went out. Natsu smiled. He headed toward the moving truck, his face tucked into his scarf, his walk deliberately paced so that he didn't look like he was in a rush. He climbed in. Checked the time. Fifteen seconds. Ten. Lucy jumped in. Five.

Natsu heard police sirens, maybe four blocks away.

Four. They were getting closer.

Three. One of the doors to the container opened.

Two. The police sirens were probably one block away. The second door opened. Mirajane stepped inside. Elfman looked in the mirror nervously waiting for the second door to shut. Gray took a step in, Natsu reached out a hand to get him inside quickly.

One. A shot rang out, loud and clear. Gray fell inside, blood spatter coating the inside of the door as Natsu hauled him inside and Mirajane lunged forward to shut the door. Elfman was already driving. Mirajane saw who was shooting. From the front seat of a police car, Erza Scarlet had her gun trained on the back of the truck, shooting in rapid succession, getting Mira's shoulder, her eyes widening at the sight of the eldest of the Strauss family. There was a second of hesitation in he aim and it was long enough for Mirajane to shut the door.

Elfman was speeding down the street. They'd been caught red handed, there was no point in trying to remain inconspicuous now. The important thing was to get them to the complex. Without the tapes, there would be no evidence that they'd committed a crime. They could bring out witnesses, but Acnologia would send people out to threaten them and the witnesses wouldn't show up to court. Erza could say that Mirajane was there, but her presence didn't mean she was guilty, especially since she hadn't been caught in the bank, but outside of it. The fact that it was Erza's word against hers and Mira hadn't shot back, and there was no evidence she'd been carrying a weapon, meant that they could claim police brutality. If Elfman was taken in for speeding, they could just bail him out and then claim that he was frightened because the redhead had already shot his sister for no reason and he didn't want to stick around and lose her. Let loose a few tears and the right jury would melt.

Mirajane put pressure on her shoulder as the truck sped down the street, more sirens approaching. They had to get inside of the complex, hide the money and destroy the tape that incriminated them. If they could just make it inside the complex and hold off the cops for long enough, they would get away with it. They'd faced enough juries to know the drill. No one could keep a dragon locked up for long. It was the reason so many people went for the kill. If you locked up a member of Hellfire, you were dead meat when they got out. They always got out. Some of their members even had law degrees. They knew the system inside and out.

She watched as Natsu pulled a calm, yet pale Gray into his arms and Lucy pulled out the medical kit she'd left in the container in case something like this happened. She saw Natsu looking more and more anxious as the puddle of red on the floor of their space grew wider, his hands pressing harder on the wound in Gray's back as Natsu held him close, yelling something at Lucy as she yelled back orders at him. She saw Natsu gently lay the assassin on his stomach, telling him reassuring words as the tired of the vehicle screeched and those still standing struggled to maintain their balance. Gray tried getting up, Natsu held him down and Lucy was using a pair of disinfected tweezers to remove the bullet, checking for any signs of an organ and relaxing when she realized the bullet hadn't gone in too deep. She placed duct tape over the wound once the bullet was out, saying she would need better materials to sew up the wound but that the tape would keep out bacteria so that there wasn't an infection. Gray stood on shaky legs and sat back, wincing each time there was a fast turn or a speed bump that Elfman had no intentions of slowing down for.

Lucy moved to take a look at Mira's shoulder. The bullet had gone clean through, just to the side of the dragon tattoo. Lucy began wrapping the entrance and exit wounds in tape and Mirajane did her best not to let it bother her. Erza had shot her. Erza. Before the redhead had joined the force, or well, before they were both of age, Igneel had insisted that Mirajane go to school. Erza had been her first crush, her only girlfriend, her first time. She closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about it but the memories flooded her anyway, every noise Erza made, the way she'd gotten rough after the first time and Mira had sped up to match her, delirious and happy and it had felt so… right. Like she was finally exactly where she belonged.

Then Erza had seen someone from her past, _Jellal._ She'd told Mira that she was going to be a cop, that she was going to prove Jellal was a murderer, because she'd seen it when she was a kid but no one would believe a child. Not for something that had happened so many years earlier. Erza had driven herself nearly mad searching for him, for another chance glimpse that she never got and then they'd graduated high school, Igneel finally let Mira get her tattoo and Erza had seen it, the day before she started her training for the local police department. She'd invited Mira out to celebrate that she was going to be starting soon, and Mira had worn a sleeveless dress because the longer she kept the secret to herself, the worse it would be later on.

It turned out there wouldn't _be_ a later on. An eighteen year old Erza had taken one look at her shoulder, stood from her seat in the simple restaurant, and walked out of the place, leaving Mira to eat alone as she bit her lip and tried not to cry over losing her first love. Erza shot her. Mira hadn't spoken to her in nearly a decade, staying away when Erza came for her raids at the complex, and the first thing Erza did was _shoot her._ That had be the final nail in the coffin. Hesitation or not, Erza had still pulled the trigger. If Erza came after anyone she loved, Mirajane would aim for the kill shot. She tried not to think about how much that would hurt. She stubbornly ignored the part of her mind that kept shouting what she knew but wouldn't acknowledge… she still loved her. She would always love her. It made things hurt so much more than they had to.

Erza was not losing the truck. She would rather crash trying to keep up with it than let it go. She already knew where they were headed. She radioed in for backup, reveling in the sound of more sirens as they came closer. She also let them know to block the entrance to the complex. So many of her cases had gone cold because other cases were just seen as more important and it was all because Hellfire just kept the bloodshed coming. They weren't getting away from her this time. Three banks in four months. They weren't getting away with it again. Especially not after she'd seen who was locking up the back of that truck. She'd shared everything with that girl, shown her who she was, told her about her past, even told her about _Jellal_ and Mira had gone and betrayed her anyway, joining the gang that she _knew_ reigned around Erza's police department. Of course they would be enemies. Mirajane had just looked at her, like if she expected Erza to give up what she'd been aiming for since she'd seen Jellal driving off near their high school. She'd worked hard to get accepted into the academy. She'd studied more than she had in her entire life before that. It hadn't made a difference to Mirajane. Erza couldn't forgive her for that.

Natsu sat beside Gray. The bullets wouldn't make it through the reinforced steel of the doors, but he kept hearing them ricochet off of the surface and he was feeling paranoid, so he sat, shielding Gray from the exit. Gray pulled his black scarf up a little higher, preparing himself for the moment when they'd be surrounded and he'd have to disarm some cop and make a break for it in a police car. He would not go to jail. He would not let them get his prints in the system. Snowden would label him a rogue operative immediately. That was to be avoided at all costs.

Natsu counted down with his fingers. They made another ear-piercing turn and Natsu gripped the edge of the metal beside him for purchase, not wanting to knock into Gray and cause anymore bleeding. They'd get to the complex in a minute or so. He just needed to count down.

Gray saw the tense position of the pinkette's shoulders, turned slightly toward the mobster to block Mirajane's view of what he was going to do, and slid his hand into Natsu's, locking their fingers together. Lucy smiled from the other side of the container where she sat, though she used her hand to cover it. Natsu looked to the side at Gray, and Gray sent him a small smile, his hand squeezing the tan one in his grip. Natsu remembered to breathe, the tension easing out of him slowly. He wanted to laugh at himself. They could crash and die at any moment. They could get caught and sent to prison. They might even be gunned down, one after the other. He was ridiculous for feeling so calm. It was all Gray. Natsu wondered if he should keep his distance for his own protection. He wondered if he even _could._ Gray was too interesting, too smart, too gorgeous for him to realistically claim he could stay away. Gray was probably going to get him killed. But Gray hadn't tried to run. He'd gone with the plan. Natsu knew it was a risk for Gray as much as it was a risk for him. He didn't think Snowden would take too kindly to one of their own helping their target commit a federal offense if they knew.

The sound of sirens was deafening. They came from every direction. The truck stopped. The sirens stopped. There was silence. Natsu reached for the door, Gray snatched his hand back, and then they heard to voice of the redhead on a megaphone. She claimed they were surrounded. Natsu sighed irritably. He waited. Lucy looked nervous and shifted in her space uneasily, Gray looked at Natsu in confusion as the pinkette didn't freak out, and Mirajane braced herself, eyes shut, body tense. She and Natsu knew where they were and they knew what was coming. They heard to sound of the gates opening, the confused shouts of police officers who were facing the opposite direction to deny the truck entry, the roar of the engine, and then the truck lurched forward, Natsu wrapped an arm around Gray's soulder's to protect his head from the impact, there was the sound of a crash that shook the truck, the panicked shouting from the outside, guns firing, and the sound of gates closing. Natsu didn't want to think about how much government property Elfman had just damaged. He knew they must have rammed one cop car at least into the complex fence. Gunshots rang through the air, the truck suddenly tipped more to one side than the other, and still Elfman drove forward.

Gray was finding the heat unbearable, and while he didn't think the coast was quite clear yet so he kept the scarf in place, he did roll up his sleeves. Snowden didn't have access to Hellfire's surveillance footage. They were the only ones who would recognize his tattoo.

Doors locked behind them, and then the truck was going slightly down hill. There was the sound of a lock, a lack of movement, and then Natsu was kicking the back door open, taking one of the duffle bags in hand and leaving the other one to Mira. She scowled at him but he claimed she still had one good arm and she should use it. Really, he just wanted to have a free hand in case Gray needed the support. Gray didn't though. He stepped out on his own, walking to the front of the truck to see the damage, noticing that a cop car with two unconscious policemen in the front seats was still attached to it. Gray shook his head. He knew Hellfire was good at getting themselves out of legal entanglements, but he would pay to see how they were going to spin that in a positive light. He pulled off the stifling scarf and dropped it on the ground. He was having enough trouble keeping on his shirt. He walked behind Natsu, growing frustrated at how slow the pinkette was going to make sure he could keep up. He knew he would have to get back into his cell for Lucy to finish treating him, he just wanted to sit down as soon as possible and get rid of the dizzy feeling in his head. He didn't need Natsu prolonging his agony.

Acnologia was waiting at the entrance to the stairs.

He was surprised to see the dark-haired operative, but other than a minute widening of his eyes that left as fast as it appeared, he didn't show it.

"You got the thing to take a bullet for you?" he asked Natsu.

Natsu smiled, white teeth on full display. "He's loyal to me," he boasted one hand roughly taking Gray's jaw into his grip, bringing their faces maybe five inches apart. "Aren't you, Gray?"

Gray clenched the fist that wasn't in Acnologia's view, kept his face expressionless, nodded twice in Natsu's hold. His stomach turned when he saw something like begrudging approval and curiosity lingering in yellowish hazel eyes.

Natsu smiled once in Acnologia's direction, handing him the cash. He didn't trust Acnologia with his people. He didn't trust him with his brother. He did, however resentfully, trust the man with the money. Acnologia never stole from Hellfire. Not once. He wasn't in it for the money. He was in it for the blood and cash did little for him. He was already loaded from his previous occupation. Natsu walked past him, without motioning for Gray to follow. He knew Gray would be smart enough to figure it out by now. _Follow my lead._ He also knew that Gray following him without question would make Acnologia doubt Natsu a little less. He just hope Acnologia didn't try forming some kind of friendship with him like Natsu had accidentally heard Zeref suggest to him once. Acnologia had protested vehemently, but there was a small glint in his eyes that made Natsu afraid the man might invite him along for a torture session and Natsu didn't think his stomach could handle it.

Mirajane also handed the duffle bag over and motioned for Lucy to do the same with the purse. Lucy didn't hesitate, but she avoided Acnologia's eyes.

There would be an hour for Acnologia to hid the cash, which he had absolutely no problem with. The same length of time would be available for Natsu to set the tape on fire in the kitchens. He took Lucy up to the captive floor with Gray trailing behind him, his body displaying submissive behavior, and then Natsu went down to melt the tape. The cops hadn't seen Gray's face. They hadn't seen Natsu or Lucy either. Lucy was currently peeling off the laying of makeup from her face that obscured her bone structure. The only people they'd seen were Mirajane and Elfman. In an hour, those two would be arrested. In a day, Natsu would bail them out and they'd be right back in the complex. As long as they won in court, which they always did, Natsu would get his money back. He had burned the tape and was headed back up to check on Gray when he realized he'd kept the money that had lined his waistband tucked in. He shrugged. It wasn't like Acnologia hadn't received the majority of the profit.

Lucy was on her way out when Natsu reached Gray's cell. She smiled at him, told him Gray was doing fine and that he shouldn't worry too much. The knowing look she gave him made him feel a little too exposed and he felt heat rising to his cheeks. He stepped inside, noticing that Gray had ripped his shirt to shreds and he was sweating slightly. Natsu tried very hard to compose himself and that all went to hell when Gray opened one eye, smiled deviously and said, "Hello, warden."

Gray had too much power over him. Natsu ignored the nickname and said, "Hey."

He sat across from Gray, not too far, but not close enough. Neither of them felt he was close enough. Gray looked at him, trying to make sense of Natsu's actions.

"Something on your mind?" he asked finally. He didn't know why he was suddenly so interested. It didn't concern him. But then again, maybe Natsu would trust him if they talked more.

Natsu seemed to glare at the floor before he looked up, green eyes meeting Gray's before he glanced away. "You didn't try to run."

Gray stayed quiet. He could say that he would be labelled a failure if he escaped without killing Natsu, but then the question of why he didn't kill Natsu would come up and Gray didn't think that mentioning Acnologia would suffice as an explanation. He could lie and say he expected Natsu would push the button. Instead he said, "I told you I understood."

Natsu blinked, met his gaze again, and sent him a tired smile. Gray smiled in return. Then Natsu surprised him. The man's cheeks turned pink, he took Gray's hand in his, kissed the back of it and stood, taking quick strides out of the room and leaving Gray flabbergasted with a blush creeping up his face. He felt a fluttering sensation in his stomach. He tried to ignore it. He looked down at his hand, the warmth of soft pink lips lingering over the back of it. He smiled. He'd tried to seduce the man, but the pinkette appeared to be almost… courting him. As if he was seriously interested. That was good news. That meant Gray was at an advantage. He ignored the small part of him that knew he was looking forward to being involved with Natsu a bit too much. He would not gain feelings. Absolutely not.

As Gray assured himself he could handle Natsu, Natsu headed up to his room to calm his racing heart and question his sanity, Lucy went up to thank Freed for his work on the atm machines, and Mirajane and Elfman stepped out to let themselves be arrested, Acnologia disabled the camera in the cop car in their underground lot.

Miles away in the penthouse of a tall building, Silver Fullbuster was downloading footage from a camera that legally belonged to the police department. He wiped the footage from their servers, and played over the same few frames in the video, freezing it on one frame, where a man stood in an underground lot, removing a black scarf from around his neck, a very familiar tattoo on his arm, a tear in his shirt that revealed a bullet wound, a slight rise under the turtleneck he wore that Silver recognized instantly as a shock collar.

His fist clenched on the desk. He picked up the phone. Dialed a phone number he'd only called once before.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end was nervous, but they didn't give too much of their anxiety away.

"You recommended a kid to the program this morning."

There was a sharp intake of breath, a pause, and then, "Yes."

"You reported that he gave you news of," he paused, decided against saying 'my son' and went with, "the Ice Prince." It was better to go by monikers over the phone than mentioning real names.

A hesitation. "I did."

"You will bring the child to me within the hour." It was a command.

"What? Why-"

Silver spoke over the rest of his questions. "I have matters to discuss with the boy. They do not concern you. Is that clear?"

He could hear Lyon's teeth grinding against each other on the other end. "Crystal clear, _Chief Operative."_

Silver hung up. He shouldn't have let Lyon get away with using that tone, but he had bigger things to worry about. No one was in his office at the moment. Silver rubbed a tired hand over his face. He stared at the image on the screen. He'd already heard of the bank robbery. The time frame was a little too close to be coincidental. Gray was in deep. Silver let the video play, saw as his offspring followed his own target around like a goddamn puppy. Either Gray was waiting for a better opportunity to kill the pink-haired man, which Silver doubted because a heist at a bank would have been ideal, or he had decided against killing the man, which Silver was hoping against all odds was not the case. If Hellfire was turning their operatives, there would be war.

He lost track of time, playing the video over and over again, trying to understand what was running through Gray's head. The elevator doors opened. Lyon pushed the kid forward and he remained in the elevator. The doors closed and the kid walked forward toward the desk, sitting before Silver gave him permission too. It irked him, but he didn't have time to address the issue.

He closed the laptop, putting it aside, and he set several blank sheets of paper in front of the kid, as well as a few pencils, all sharpened.

"You're going to show me the exact layout of the Hellfire building, and I will keep you alive in the program." He didn't smile. He wasn't going to be friendly. The scar across his forehead and the edge of one eye was more intimidating than any gun could be.

The kid gritted his teeth, but began, and Silver grabbed his fist in an iron grip. "If anything on there doesn't match up, I will kill the Dragneels myself."

His voice was very calm as he said it, a promise. He'd heard of the youngest Dragneel's prodigy. The kid he took under his wing. Sources said the boy had talent. Silver would be the judge of that.

Dark eyes met his defiantly. "And if it matches, you won't?"

The kid oozed sarcasm, and Silver's lips twitched up at the edges. "As long as they don't get in any of my operatives' way, sure." He was lying through the skin of his teeth but the kid didn't know that. His eyes remained on the kid's face. The kid averted his eyes and nodded, setting to his task again. Silver nearly smiled. Now he would have a map to the city's most wanted list, and he knew that the kid had a way to contact Natsu Dragneel. He wouldn't have nodded complacently otherwise. He would keep eyes on the kid and track anyone he contacted, a phone number, an email, something.

He was going to send a message to the so-called Salamander of Hellfire. Well, more like two messages. It never hurt to be thorough.


	9. The Mirror Look

Natsu was a Dragneel. As such, he was prepared for a lot of situations.

This particular situation was decidedly _not_ one of them. He stared at the message in the shared document he had with his brother. No. No fucking way. Never in a million years. Not possible. And no matter how many times he tried to will the message to just disappear, he still saw the black letters there in size eleven Arial font, the cursor blinking back at him as Zeref waited for his response.

 _The demon would like you both to join us today. S._

Natsu cursed whatever god had saddled him with this because he knew he couldn't get out of it. He also knew that going along would mean bloody suicide. In order to survive an _S-class_ mission, members had to be completely in tune with one another, they had to know how to read each other's expressions and mannerisms to know when shit was gonna hit the fan, to be able to protect each other to the best of their ability. He might have shared that with Zeref when Igneel was still around, but they'd long since stopped going on missions together and while Natsu would give his life for Zeref, he didn't know whether or not Zeref had kept up his training, he knew damn well Acnologia wouldn't step in to aid him if it became necessary, and the worst part of it all was the subtle implication of his brother's message. _Both._ The message asked for them _both._

He had _known_ bringing Gray along for the bank heist was a mistake. He'd fucking _told_ Mirajane he wasn't ready, and Gray had surprised him and followed his lead the entire time, but while the whole thing was a stunt to impress Acnologia, the fucker was either a little _too_ impressed, or he was skeptical because of how soon Natsu had taken Gray outside of the walls and now they were completely screwed because while Natsu had fought with Zeref for years and seen Acnologia fight enough times to know not to interfere no matter what he saw, he had no idea how Gray worked on missions where the aim was to kill. Gray was an assassin and the only point of reference for that kind of mission Natsu had was the one where he himself was the target.

He'd only gotten maybe five minutes of a fight with Gray and that told him exactly nothing. He didn't even know if Gray had ever worked with a partner before. Had he worked with Sting? With the other operatives? He came to the complex alone. Did that mean he always worked alone? How many people had he killed? How did he kill his targets? How long did he take to process new information and form plans based on that? What were his methods? Preferred weapons? Hell, Natsu didn't even know if Acnologia would _allow_ Gray to use a weapon or if he would leave that up to Natsu as a test, in which case Natsu would _have_ _to_ give Gray a weapon or risk Acnologia questioning his trust in the operative he'd supposedly broken.

He didn't know a fucking thing about Gray. Now he would have to trust the man with his life and ask Gray to trust him with the same amount. He'd just started flirting back with Gray and now he had to ask the operative to fight for him, risk his life for him, kill for him. Somehow, he didn't think a rival mafia gang territory in a neighboring city would make for a very _romantic_ atmosphere. He'd already been informed of Zeref's priority mission, it was the reason they'd needed extra funding, to pay off spies, sources, to send aspiring members to kill third-rate dealers hired by the enemies and set fires to their homes to distract the police department of the area, to infiltrate their headquarters with enough explosives to destroy them from the inside and set up a bomb that would detonate as soon as Zeref and Acnologia made it out. It was the sort of job that had been coming for _months._ The kind of mission that would require the involvement of at least half their members and three of their elite. Natsu hadn't been placed in those plans because Zeref didn't know whether or not he would make it back from the bank heist completely uninjured and he hadn't wanted to risk needing a replacement at the last minute. If Natsu had known that Acnologia's look of begrudging approval would entail _this,_ he would have shot himself in the arm to prevent it.

He knew he couldn't use Gray's gunshot wound as an excuse to get him out of it. It would be interpreted as mercy and that was something he couldn't afford to show if he wanted to keep Gray from Acnologia. Even if they didn't… get involved, Natsu still owed Gray Romeo's life. Gray had given him a way out for the first time in five years, some goddamn breathing room when it felt like the stress of everything might strangle him in his sleep. An S-class mission was practically a suicide mission for anyone under the Hellfire Elite. Even Elite members were known to die in them. Or at least come back with severe wounds. Natsu couldn't hope to protect himself, Gray, and watch Zeref's back, which meant he would have to trust Gray to protect him as he focused on Gray and he would be forced to trust Acnologia with his brother's life. That grated on his last nerve, because while he knew that Acnologia would never let anyone put a scratch on Zeref's head, it didn't mean he liked seeing what could be interpreted as a violent level of affection between them. Natsu was sure that affection had to be one-sided. There was no way a monster, a _demon,_ was capable of affection. Acnologia was just trying to protect his own position. Natsu also refused to believe that Zeref could feel anything more than mere affection for Acnologia, because the thought that his brother might love that monster made Natsu's skin crawl and Zeref had never even said that he loved Mavis out loud, so surely Acnologia wasn't worthy of hearing that string of words. Surely. Not when even Mavis hadn't heard them.

Natsu sighed, his frustration palpable. Once again, he felt like a cornered animal with no options. It was do what Acnologia had oh-so-kindly requested, or deal with the consequences. He deleted Zeref's message to let him know that he'd seen it and typed a message of his own.

 _Understood._

A request from Acnologia was practically the same as a request from Zeref these days and nobody said no to the head of Hellfire.

Natsu saw the words being deleted and closed the document, logging out of his email. He got up, stepped out of his room, and headed down to see Gray. The mission was that night, so he wanted to discuss it with Gray before Zeref called them in to discuss the technicalities of the outing…. Outing. The word made Natsu pause outside of the door to Gray's cell. They would be outside the walls. If Natsu left one remote behind and the other got damaged during the mission, Gray could escape. If Natsu was injured just badly enough, it might be believable that Gray was taken by traffickers. Acnologia would search for a few weeks then write him off as dead meat. It could be a way for Gray to get out and back to Snowden without causing Natsu's death. Natsu might have gone through with it without a second of hesitation, but now a sinking feeling started in the pit of his stomach and he found himself grimacing at the turn of his own thoughts. His… attraction… to Gray wasn't a good reason to hold him back. Natsu already knew that Sting, an assassin in his own right, was on his side. If there was a window of opportunity to get Gray out of the hot seat, Natsu had to take it, regardless of the fact that he wouldn't be able to see him again. Emotions might have helped keep Hellfire strong when Igneel was around, but now they only made members weak and disposable.

He gritted his teeth and came to a decision. He would get Gray to safety tonight. He wouldn't get another opportunity like this soon. Delaying just because of his interest in the assassin wasn't an option. He stepped inside the room and Gray gave him a winning bright smile that faded as soon as he saw the kicked puppy look on Natsu's face.

"What is it?" Straight to the point. Gray had learned that if he didn't speak up, Natsu wouldn't get straight to it. He wasn't like Lyon or Sting or Rogue and definitely nothing like Silver. They knew that Gray didn't do much small talk. If he could avoid talking entirely, he did. Natsu was… different. Natsu took every conversation as an opportunity to learn more about people, to make them laugh. So far, Gray had actually enjoyed their little talks because Natsu was flustered so easily and watching some legendary mobster blush the same shade as his hair did wonders for Gray's confidence. Gray knew that now wasn't the time for trying to get into the youngest Dragneel's pants. Natsu looked worried, frustrated, but most of all disappointed and Gray wasn't going to waste time on small talk. If something happened and Natsu had come to see him, then it involved him somehow and he needed that information _now._

Natsu hid his face in his scarf. He did that when he was nervous, when he was flustered, when he was upset. It was his defense mechanism and while it usually made Gray feel like he had the upper hand, now it made him tense in apprehension.

"I found a way to get you out."

Gray blinked. He felt his chest constricting and he waited for Natsu to look at him so he could figure out just what the fuck was going on, but Natsu just sat in front of him, business as usual, with the small discrepancy of refusing to meet his eyes.

"What?" he asked, because he couldn't have heard that right. Because Natsu had said he needed time. Because Gray couldn't leave before securing a position in Hellfire. Because his objective had changed and he needed to bring a head back to Snowden or deal with the fallout of his first failure. Because Acnologia was still breathing and the words Natsu had just said were _idiotic._

"Acnologia expects me to bring you on an S-class mission. It's dangerous, practically suicidal and I can say you were kidnapped," Natsu started, his words rushed as if he was trying to get them all out before he ran out of air, "You can escape and in a few weeks Acnologia will assume you're dead, so-"

"And what makes you _think,"_ Gray interrupted him, his hands balled into fists, his body angling closer, so close he was breathing in the scent of Natsu, cinnamon and something sweet, his voice low and furious, "That I _want_ to leave, _Natsu?"_

Green eyes snapped up to stare at Gray. He should have been staring incredulously because Gray had just said he wanted to _stay_ and that alone was enough to make his pulse race with hope, a fact that probably should have worried him more, but instead Natsu was staring at Gray in a mix of awe and pure _want_ because up until now, he hadn't heard Gray say his name and hearing it for the first time in a harsh, heated reprimand, his face so nearby, his stare so intense and angry, Natsu couldn't help himself. He leaned in closer, his lips just a breath away from Gray's, looking up to see dark midnight blue eyes widening and then their pupils dilating, a tongue coming out to lick at such a pretty bottom lip, and then-

"Oh, for _fuck's sake, Natsu!"_

Natsu jumped back and turned to see what looked like a downright _painful_ scowl on Laxus' face.

He faced Laxus with a scowl of his own.

"Fuck off, _Laxus."_ He'd been about to kiss Gray. He'd been attracted to the operative the moment he laid eyes on him in the reflection of his computer screen and he'd been about to kiss him and the blonde had _ruined it._ Natsu was not in the mood to deal with his shit today.

Laxus' face tightened in anger and he shut his eyes, breathing deeply to calm himself, something Natsu knew for a fact he'd learned from Freed. Freed was way more subtle about it.

He opened his eyes and glared at Natsu.

"How exactly are you going to explain to Acnologia that your 'retribution' involves turning the operative into your personal fucktoy?" he asked, a harsh whisper through gritted teeth that made Natsu flinch, color rising to his face that he ignored.

Then he was glaring, green eyes narrowed in a look of defiance Laxus wouldn't be able to fry out. " _Acnologia_ isn't going to find out," he replied, his jaw clenching so hard Gray thought he might crack a tooth or something. He noted gleefully that Natsu hadn't denied the sexual aspect of their involvement. They hadn't fucked yet, but Gray didn't think he'd be kept waiting much longer if Natsu was going head to head with Laxus over him. Laxus opened his mouth, but Natsu wasn't done speaking, "Just like Acnologia didn't find out about _you."_

Laxus froze, eyes narrowed and disbelieving. It was an empty threat and they both knew it. Natsu would never put Freed in harm's way. It wasn't the threat itself that had Laxus stop in his tracks, but the fact that Natsu dared to say it out loud, the one thing he'd never mentioned, never put into words even though Laxus knew that Natsu had known it from the beginning. He knew Natsu wouldn't go through with it, but the mention of what he had with Freed, the thought of Freed and the terror he'd felt when Acnologia had threatened to send him to the traffickers… Laxus couldn't risk it, couldn't fight to make Natsu see sense because given the choice between protecting Natsu and protecting Freed, there was no choice at all.

All he could do was look at the prisoner, the shock collar on his neck that still marked him as someone under Natsu's control, not someone that stood at his side of his own free will, something he thought Natsu was forgetting, and then meet a green-eyed stare once more and say, "I hope he's worth all this."

Natsu tore his eyes away, shame coursing through him at how far he'd gone, but he couldn't back down now. "What did you come here for?"

Laxus flung a paper note at him. "Instructions from Zeref. He and his demon will meet your there."

Natsu picked the note off the floor beside him and turned away, the sound of the door shutting making him let out a breath of relief.

A cold touch on his cheek made him look up, Gray's eyes lingering on his lips, Gray's hand caressing his cheek, his thumb tracing over Natsu's cheekbone making him blush a bright red, but he didn't pull away.

But Gray didn't look at his lips for long. Midnight blue eyes met his own with a fierce challenging look that Natsu couldn't turn from. "Don't make decisions for me, _Natsu."_

And Natsu felt like he was melting at the way Gray pronounced his name, as if Natsu was something that was his to command and his alone, regardless of the collar that rested on his neck.

"I thought you wanted to escape," Natsu replied softly, his mind still struggling to comprehend why Gray would want to stay, even if a part of him was insanely pleased at the thought.

"I did," Gray told him honestly. He'd simply thought of a better option.

Natsu laughed at how straightforward Gray was, how he didn't circle around the truth like most of the people Natsu talked to, how he didn't force him to read between the lines and make his own assumptions.

"What changed your mind?" he asked. He wanted to hear that Gray was choosing to prolong his stay for his friends. He wanted to hear Gray was choosing to remain in Hellfire to help murder Acnologia. But what he wanted to hear more than those options, was what he was sure Gray would never say, what Natsu was sure couldn't be the reason because Gray would have to be crazy to say-

"You." It wasn't a lie. I wasn't the whole truth either. Gray knew he was staying for a shot at Acnologia's head. Natsu was just the first step towards that goal. That and Gray wanted him. He wanted to fuck him into the wall. He wanted to watch Natsu fall apart beneath him and scream his name like a desperate prayer as his vision went white and his body spasmed in Gray's hold. He knew he'd said the right thing when Natsu's eyes widened and shot up to look for any trace of a lie in his face. Natsu was fairly easy to read when his guard wasn't up and Gray let his face redden in mock embarrassment at his admission before clearing his throat and asking what the instructions were.

Natsu's shocked expression morphed into a soft smile that did weird unexpected things to Gray's chest and soon they were going over every aspect of the plan, which direction they would enter from and how they would keep an eye on each other, at which point Gray had to stop because-

"I don't need to be _protected."_

Natsu sighed. That sentence told him a lot more about Gray than he thought the man intended. It meant Gray always worked alone, was a much more experienced killer than Natsu would have assumed if he was so confident in his abilities, and he'd probably had a shit childhood. Adults who'd been protected well as children didn't feel the need to assert their independence quite as vehemently. Then again, Natsu figured anyone who was actually _successful_ in the darker side of the business had to have been through their own personal hell at some point to endure it, so he couldn't say he was _surprised._

"I didn't say you needed protecting," Natsu tried.

"You implied it," Gray shot back.

"People have _died_ on these missions before," Natsu insisted, voice growing louder.

Gray's volume increased in response, "I'm _not_ them."

Natsu's mind flashed with memories of Igneel. Of Mavis. Of Lisanna. Of everyone else he'd failed to save. "I won't lose anyone else!" he shouted, his breaths coming fast and his fists clenched at his sides, dread rising in him in thin waves of smoke as he saw realization cross Gray's face which soon melted into something cold that promised pain and Natsu knew that whatever Gray said next was something they would both regret.

"I'm not yours to lose." Gray knew he fucked up the moment he heard the words out loud. He knew it because Natsu didn't leave immediately, but he leaned further away from Gray, the first move of retreat and it stung. It wasn't supposed to make Gray feel anything other than disappointment in himself for a setback, and instead it felt like a slap to the face. He'd fucked up just when he'd gotten Natsu to get closer to him and now the pinkette had his face buried in his scarf again to hide what he was feeling from Gray and Gray wanted to take it back, to lie, but lying to Natsu was becoming a difficult thing. He could tell the man half-truths but an outright lie was hard to get past his lips. He wasn't Natsu's to lose. Couldn't be. Maybe he could pretend. Hell, if Natsu wasn't a Snowden target, Gray might have wanted to be. But in his line of work he couldn't afford attachments like that and this was a sharp reminder to himself that he needed to think of this game with Natsu as just that. A game. A strategy. Nothing more. So in the interest of keeping the game going… "Yet," he added.

Natsu showed a brief hesitation before looking up into midnight eyes again and asking, "Yet?"

Gray didn't hesitate. He mirrored the motion Natsu had made the previous night, reaching out, taking a tan hand in his, and lightly pressing his lips to the back of it, slow and lingering where Natsu had rushed through it. He looked up into light green depths that were staring at him in wide admiration. "Yet," he confirmed. He couldn't let himself fall for a member of Hellfire, much less an inheritor, but Natsu didn't have to know that.

Natsu's smile could light up even the darkest of places on the face of the earth. Gray tried to make himself believe that it wasn't anything special. Tried and failed.

Natsu didn't think for a second that Gray would have given up on his loyalties so easily. He didn't think Gray was staying solely for him, nor did he think that Gray actually believed himself when he said he would be Natsu's to lose. He knew Gray was trying to lie. What made Natsu smile, wasn't hearing the words, but seeing the way Gray looked at him as he said the words, as if he was trying to convince himself he didn't mean them. It meant Natsu had a chance, a real chance, at making them something real. He was aware it was a stupid thing to want. But Gray could piss him off with one word and calm him down with a single touch. Gray could give him a single look and make Natsu want to rip off his clothes right then and there and then turn away from him and make Natsu feel lost. Gray was the most untameable person Natsu encountered and he was the only one who really knew it in the complex. Gray was beautiful and Natsu wanted him all to himself. He just wanted to wait until Acnologia was dead. With the demon gone, Natsu could restore his father's empire into something that Snowden might accept an allegiance with. Then Natsu could date Gray properly without worrying about whether or not one of them would die because of it. That was what Natsu wanted. Except Gray kept testing his self-restraint every time he leaned in close and licked his lips and made it seem like he'd want nothing more in those moments than to strip him down and take him. And Natsu hadn't missed the way Gray's eyes darkened when he said Natsu's name. He'd seen the way Natsu reacted and he would be using that to just torture Natsu. Natsu missed being called warden. At least then he could control himself. Gray saying his name just wasn't _fair._

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and started unlocking the chains. It was getting late. They would have to leave soon. Gray hated the chains with a passion. The complex was surrounded. The vents were bolted down. There was a shock collar on his neck. He could only hope that this 'S-class' mission would prove his 'loyalty' to Hellfire's Salamander so that he could get a room like Sting and Rogue. His cell was becoming a tiresome thing to look at, just four dark walls and shit lighting. It resembled a room he didn't want to remember. That made him pleased for each of these surprise outings.

Within the hour Natsu and Gray were at the location Zeref ordered.

Acnologia stared Gray down intently, Zeref watched Acnologia because he knew that his demon didn't get along with his brother and this had been Acnologia's idea, a sort of truce between him and Hellfire's Salamander. Natsu's success in taming an operative of his own had sparked Acnologia's interest and Zeref was apprehensive, but also hopeful that this would be the first step towards cooperation between the two.

Gray kept his gaze locked on Natsu. He took one look at his surroundings and then his eyes went right back to his former target. It wouldn't hurt to show his 'loyalty.' As far as the others knew, Natsu had broken him, which meant the one that Gray would be expected to follow through fire was Natsu, not Zeref, not The Ghost Mercenary.

The car Zeref and Acnologia used had the door to the driver's side open. They waited. The police scanner started going off about three fires in the city, all within five minutes of each other. It would be hard to miss the pattern. Then a fourth was reported. A fifth. Calls about a sixth and seventh fire. A bomb threat at a hospital. The sound of sirens went off in the distance.

Acnologia almost smiled.

Zeref handed Natsu a bag and then both Acnologia and Zeref disappeared behind the building, headed toward the other exits. Zeref and Acnologia would kill anyone trying to use the back exits and clear the north wing where most of the fighters would be. Natsu was supposed to clear the bottom floor and the basement, as well as set up the bomb so that within five minutes it would go off and obliterate the foundation, turning their entire infrastructure into rubble on fire. Gray was supposed to find his way onto the roof and strategically wipe out the upper floors starting from the south end each time so that if anyone tried to run, they would end up in the north wing and meet their end with either a bullet or a blade. Sting and Rogue were set up on the roof of a building facing the east exit, ready to shoot at anyone who might make it out. Freed had already disabled their security system and Laxus was sitting at the bottom of the fire escape, smoking a cigar as he waited for fuckers to just try making it past him, gun loaded and ready. Where the rest of the building had five floors, the north wing only had three, making it so that the strongest of the men could escape in case of an emergency, letting them be closer to the exits, but that would be entirely useless with Acnologia and Zeref zeroing in on them. _Eat or be eaten_ and Acnologia was _hungry._

As soon as Zeref and his demon were out of sight, Gray made his way forward, ready to climb up the side of the fire escape on the west end when a hand closed over his wrist. Gray turned to look at the faint shade of pink dusting over tan cheeks and waited for whatever Natsu was going to say.

"Just… be careful," came the small, seemingly insignificant request, and then Natsu was disappearing into the front of the building, the sound of gunfire muffled by the thick walls.

Gray felt his heartbeat pick up the pace and he felt so _stupid_ for it. All the man had said was 'be careful.' That was it. It wasn't important. It wasn't _meaningful_. But a small voice in his head called out _liar_ and Gray remembered that the last person to actually say those words to him was Ultear. Right before the incident. The day before she died. He felt his eyes watering and forced himself forward toward the west end. Being around Natsu was like playing with fire, he had to be careful or he would get burned. Laxus glared at him and Gray very deliberately ignored him and made his way up the fire escape. He got to the roof, snapped the neck of the guy guarding the stairwell instead of using the gun because the building might filter the noise out but firing a gun with nothing but air around would cause someone to call the cops and they couldn't afford that so early, and made his way down to the highest floor, locking the door behind him. He wouldn't be using that exit.

He didn't like to stick around after killing someone, mostly because usually it took time for them to actually die and he didn't want to see the process. Contrary to what most people assumed, usually snapping someone's neck didn't automatically kill them. There were still about three minutes left where the person was perfectly aware of the pain filling their senses, the fact that their body wasn't quite right anymore, the knowledge that they were suffocating because the broken bones were obstructing their airway before they finally, painfully, died. Gray didn't like watching that realization cross their faces.

Natsu had just taken out three armed men at the entrance, though one of them had managed to shoot at him and graze the side of his thigh, it was just a scratch. He'd shot one of those guys in the face, so… it was safe to say he was the victor in that particular confrontation.

He was just about to focus on clearing out the first floor when he heard gunshots being fired above. Several of them. He tensed. Men started rushing out from behind boxes of shipments and Natsu aimed and fired consistently, leaping out of the way, dropping down when someone came at him and turning around to shoot the back of the guy's head, turning right back around to face the barrel of a gun, dropping just a second before a finger clamped down on the trigger hitting nothing but empty air as Natsu raised his arm, quickly firing a shot under the man's jaw and watching the top of his head blow off, a mess of blood coating the ceiling. Disgusting. And something Natsu didn't have time for. He ran up the metal stairs to his left toward the sound of gunfire. Zeref had a silencer on his weapon. Acnologia didn't like using guns. That and neither of them were supposed to be in the south side of the building. Either Gray was firing his gun more times than he had bullets to back up his shots for, or all of those bullets were being aimed at _him_ and Natsu found himself deviating from the plan and going _up_ instead of _down._

He held his gun in front of himself, taking out five guys before they could get in his way. Kill first, ask questions later. Things might have been different once. They might have tried negotiating with the new blood. Now death was the first and only choice and Natsu could still hear gun beings fired above. He felt dread clawing at his skin and he climbed up a second set of stairs, only to freeze at the sight of Gray, two guns stuffed into his belt, using a blade to slice someone's throat open above him, his left hand crushing a man's windpipe as the man lay trapped beneath him. There was so much blood, so many dead bodies, and as soon as the first guy dropped, Gray dropped the blade and wrapped both hands around the first guy's neck, the vein from the tattooed arm rising against his skin with the force he was putting into the kill. Then one of the supposed dead bodies from down the hall was raising its arm. Natsu couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man with how badly the person's face was shredded, but they had one eye trained on Gray, one hand still clutching a gun, finger on the trigger and Natsu felt like it was happening in slow motion. He called out Gray's name, ran forward and knocked Gray completely down, the bullet just missing them as Natsu shot an arm up in front of his line of sight and aimed for the person's single unharmed eye, watching it widen in fear as he took the shot.

Gray had just felt a pulse shorten out beneath his fingertips when he heard Natsu shouting his name, when he saw the dragon running toward him, an expression of desperation and possessiveness painted over his features, when he felt the wind being knocked out of him and saw a gun held in Natsu's grip and only had a split second to wonder _why did his voice make me calm?_ before Natsu was firing and Gray saw a lethal, vicious look in those pale green depths that he'd never thought he would see in another person. It was the look of someone who took people's lives repeatedly because a murderer was who he was raised to become, because he'd never had a choice, because he'd been born into the life, a look Gray had only ever seen in the mirror. The look of someone who killed because doing anything else was never an option he was given. Gray found himself breathing harshly because Natsu's body was over his own, closing him in, and it was this moment that made Gray realize… Natsu was beautiful. Natsu was perfect. Natsu was the kind of person who never had a choice, the kind of person that could understand Gray, that wouldn't judge him, that wouldn't run away once he knew who Gray really was and Gray had never wanted anyone more in his life.

Natsu felt like he could breathe again when he saw the body fall the rest of the way and he gave Gray his brightest smile, only to have it fade at the awestruck gaze he was receiving. Something about the way Gray was looking at him, like if he was shocked about something that he hadn't noticed before, like he was afraid to breathe lest it make Natsu move away… and suddenly Natsu realized just what position they were in, that Gray's hands were on his hips as if they were-

Natsu yelped and fell back in his attempt to move away and Gray smiled a tiny smile that Natsu was too flustered to notice.

Natsu wiped the blood that had gotten on his hands on the thigh area of his cargo pants before he tugged his scarf up over the lower half of his face nervously. There was a time and place for everything. This was sure as fuck not the place and nowhere _near_ the time to be worrying about his interest in Gray. He'd already deviated from the plan and he didn't regret it, seeing as Gray could have been killed, but that didn't mean he didn't realize that Gray had him acting differently.

Gray snapped out of his onslaught of admiration for his… mission partner? Keeper? Ex-target? He didn't know what to call Natsu anymore. Natsu was just… Natsu. His warden. The thought made him fight back a smile. Still, as much as he enjoyed seeing Natsu in action, one thing was nagging at him.

"You weren't supposed to be on the third floor," he reprimanded.

Natsu grinned. "You almost got shot."

"And you haven't set up the bomb," he shot back.

Natsu's smile became soft as he went down the stairs, increasing his pace because he knew Gray was right and if anyone managed to call for help they were running out of time. Still he answered, "I had to make sure you made it through the five floors with only fifteen bullets."

Gray had run out of bullets. But he'd murdered another guy and taken his gun as well, then run out a second time and finally got fed up enough to fight someone in hand-to-hand combat and used their own blade against them. It was a pretty blade, with a dark black handle and a carving in the silver. He hadn't known of someone trying to shoot at him until after he'd been hypnotized by the look in the dragon's eyes. He picked off the gun from one of the bodies Natsu had left at the bottom of the second stairwell and checked the clip. He needed to stay focused. He'd worry about… whatever he and Natsu were at another time. Seven bullets left. That was fine. Manageable.

They'd just reached the second floor when Gray heard the sound of a bone snapping, grabbed Natsu's wrist and shoved him behind a pile of shipment crates, covering his mouth with his hand and looking past the crate to assess the threat level. What he saw made his eyes widen. Natsu was about to protest the sudden treatment when he saw the look in Gray's eyes and turned his head to look through the thin space between drug shipments.

What the _fuck_ was Acnologia doing on the south end of the second floor? Then Natsu saw what made the demon leave his designated area. A man was trying to crawl away from Acnologia as the twin blades cut slices into his back, the blood pouring down his sides and staining his shirt, his jaw hanging off of his face at an awkward angle that Natsu knew wasn't reparable. He must have gone head to head with the former mercenary and realized he was out of his league when Acnologia broke his jaw. And then he'd tried to run and that was something Acnologia wouldn't allow, wouldn't respect. He would see the man as a coward who wouldn't at least face his death with dignity and proceed to slice his skin open. Natsu watched as Acnologia got fed up with his prey, taking a fistful of the man's light brown hair and yanking backward, the man's jaw wide open and swinging back and forth as a gurgling screech emanated from low in his throat, Acnologia becoming annoyed and knocking the guy head into the huge wooden shipment boxes at his side repeatedly. Natsu watched as Acnologia threw the helplessly defeated man on the floor, his back hitting the ground, breaths coming out in low wheezes that signalled internal bleeding, as a single long, curved blade stabbed into the bottom of his abdomen, rising beneath the skin and gutting him, Acnologia's eyes trained on the sight, a glint of amusement glowing in golden hazel depths, even as his face remained impassive.

Natsu let his gaze turn back to Gray, only to regret it as he saw the horror flashing in deep midnight blues. The sound of a gunshot made his attention snap back to where Acnologia stood, a dead body at his feet with a hole in its eye, a scowl on Acnologia's face. And Natsu knew what had happened immediately. Acnologia didn't like to use guns.

Natsu waited and, just as he'd known it would happen, Zeref stepped into view as Acnologia shot him an annoyed look. Natsu tensed. He didn't think Acnologia would hurt Zeref but the man was hostile and Natsu didn't trust him no matter how many times Zeref told him Acnologia was trustworthy. Natsu raised his gun and pointed it, knowing he couldn't shoot unless Acnologia did something out of line or Zeref might retaliate. Natsu didn't know where his brother's loyalty lay anymore. Then Zeref was brushing a hand through Acnologia's hair and Natsu felt bile rising in his throat.

Zeref allowed his hand to remain in his lover's hair. He was always taken aback by how soft it was in spite of the spiky, untameable appearance. He carded his fingers through it, the tip of his index finger brushing against the scalp and the tension seemed to roll off of his demon in waves. Zeref bit back a smile. It was always like this. A single touch and Acnologia would calm down and look at him like the world was his to command. Like Acnologia, wild and dangerous, exotic and fatal, beautiful in a way Zeref could never have imagined someone could be, was his to command. Zeref tugged the man down by dark blue locks of hair, it was no secret that Acnologia was a bit taller than him, and their lips crashed together, fast and violent and just what they both needed.

Zeref's gun was still in his hand, his finger still on the trigger, and Acnologia trusted him not to accidentally kill one of them because Zeref was so familiar with his weapon that it felt like an extension of his body and Acnologia had seen him maintain his control too many times to count. He prided himself on being the only one Zeref let himself loosen his control with, the only one who got to see Zeref become an entirely different person, something delicately intricate that could shatter under the right circumstances, but like a true dragon, would _always rise again._ Zeref was a bred and born executioner, the only man with the kind of strength that could match him, the kind of person that once they set their eyes on someone they wanted eliminated, it meant that person was as good as dead. Zeref killed with precision, without hesitation, with _finesse_ and his eyes sparked with a tiny flare of life whenever he did, a life that had been all but gone when Acnologia first spoke to him, a life that he saw returning into obsidian depths a little more every day. His angel. His very own _angel of death._ Zeref deserved everything, and through blood and screams and tears, wars if they proved necessary, Acnologia would make him a king. A god among men. No one else understood him. Zeref understood completely. No one else mattered.

"Why'd you stop my fun?" he asked as Zeref pulled back, hand still entwined in his hair.

"Am I to assume I'm less interesting than a third-rate corpse?" came the question.

Acnologia shoved Zeref against the same shipment boxes he'd smashed the guy's head against earlier, lifting him up by his thighs and pressing their bodies together. "Never," he growled, leaning in close to breathe in the same air as his equal, "You fucking _tease."_

Zeref's expression gave nothing away. It was one of the things about him that made Acnologia entirely _obsessed,_ _addicted._ Zeref could be the world's greatest liar if he tried, his poker face had no tell. But then the words he chose to speak out loud always gave away what he was feeling because he didn't bother to hide it, never needed to because he was strong enough to handle anyone who dared to threaten him.

"You enjoy me this way," he breathed, and Acnologia crushed their mouths together, because they didn't do soft and slow, they were far too violent, far too impatient after waiting so long to find someone to match them.

There was the sound of footsteps going up the stairwell from where they'd just come from and Acnologia pulled away grinning, the sort of smile he didn't let anyone but Zeref see and Zeref smiled softly in response and on the far side of the room where neither of them knew two people were watching them, Natsu had never felt such intense _disgust._

He couldn't understand how his brother could believe Acnologia felt anything for him. He couldn't understand how Zeref could watch the man beating someone who was as good as dead past the point of hopelessness and still _touch_ him let alone _kiss_ him.

He pulled what appeared to be a frozen-in-shock Gray toward the lower stairwell and ran as soon as he realized Acnologia and Zeref were headed in the opposite direction. They could be shocked and disgusted later, they still had a job to do.

Gray followed Natsu in silence until they reached the basement stairwell and Gray shoved Natsu aside and went in first, making the pinkette scowl behind his scarf. It was dark in the stairwell and just as Gray reached the bottom step, Natsu made a strangled sound and Gray turned to see someone dropping down from above, thighs wrapped around Natsu's head as the guy tried to get a hold of a tan jaw to break it. Gray saw the moment the man gave up the task and took out a knife. He raised his gun and shot into the man's chest three bullets in quick succession. Natsu fell to the floor gasping and the man fell, leaking blood from all three bullet wounds and the side of his mouth, eyes wide open as he made small whimpering sounds that failed to become full breaths. Gray realized he wasn't dead yet, and took a vindictive pleasure in shooting the guy's crotch, watching as a spastic jolt went through his entire body and tears ran down his face. Gray shrugged. At least he would die in pain.

Natsu tried to go into the basement first and Gray knocked him right back to the ground so that he could make sure there were no people ready to jump out of random hiding places. Natsu glared at him once he nodded toward him, but set to building the bomb anyway.

Gray watched Natsu for the five minutes it took him. The bag he'd received from Zeref came packed with blocks of C4, so as long as Natsu set up the detonator correctly, the entire structure would collapse and an entire city would look to get their drug supply elsewhere. From Hellfire. Gray watched Natsu work intently, looking for any mistakes in his set up and saw none. He wanted to smile. The look of concentration, of lethal intent not by choice but by tradition. The look Gray recognized only from mirrors. He didn't know how to deal with it. He just knew he didn't want Natsu to die. Natsu connected the last wire and then they both heard just how prevalent the silence was. There were no gunshots above. There were no screams. Neither of them heard the sounds of snapping bones. They both knew what it meant. Acnologia and Zeref were done. It also meant that by now at least fifteen minutes had passed and if anyone had called the police force, they were on their way. Natsu set the timer for the bomb to three minutes, grabbed Gray's hand and ran up to the main floor, letting Gray's hand go just before they got to the front exit, knowing that Zeref and Acnologia would be there, trusting Gray to follow him without even thinking of the remote in his pocket.

Natsu ran across the street, Gray following his lead, both of them jumping into the car. Natsu saw Zeref driving off once he caught sight of him, and he turned the car on and pulled away from the curve too, the sounds of sirens coming closer.

Gray felt someone's stare and turned his head to see Lyon standing on the corner right by the building. He felt shards of ice flowing in his veins and yelled out, "Run," watching as Lyon took off after their car, just far enough and then the building was exploding behind him and Gray was letting out a breath of relief at the sight of Lyon alive and unharmed by the blast. Then he felt dread creeping into the edges of his mind because Lyon had run _toward_ the car. Lyon had assumed Gray needed help. Lyon had an eye for detail. He'd probably seen the fucking shock collar and drawn his own conclusions. _Shit._

Lyon turned to see the building going up in flames, or at least what remained of it. His thoughts were running a mile a minute. Silver was _right,_ that fucking asshole. He'd said the arson cases were an obvious distraction and that this happening right after Hellfire was accused of robbing a bank was no coincidence. He'd called Lyon and told him of certain suspicions he had, that the youngest Dragneel was going to be involved somehow and that Snowden's Ice Prince would be with him. Lyon had scoffed and resisted the urge to call his superior a moron. Now, it was clear that Silver knew more than he let on. Gray had been wearing a shock collar. That was one bit of information the kid had kept to himself. Those fuckers had him captive and The Salamander had branded his prodigy as a traitor just to manipulate Snowden. Lyon called the one person he always dreaded calling.

"Have you changed your mind?"

Lyon gritted his teeth. He hadn't agreed to Silver's plans. He had wanted to avoid a war because he didn't have enough information. He hadn't known what Gray's plans were, whether or not he was safe. Now he knew Gray was being held against his will. Romeo might have had faith in Hellfire's precious little Salamander. Lyon had no such faith.

"I'm in."

There was a long silence. Lyon could practically hear the pleased smirk on the other end of the line. It made him want to punch Silver's smug face, because he knew the man would never have suggested what he was planning if Gray had been the only missing operative. But then again, at least _Silver_ never held Gray against his will. _Pick the lesser of two evils._

"I'll get the kid ready." Lyon hoped they wouldn't be too late. They had a dragon inheritor to kill.


End file.
